Principal Software Engineer, Performance

Nuro
Mountain View, CA
On-site

In the 12 months to 30 Jun 2026, Nuro filed 9 H-1B positions titled "Software Engineer". Source: U.S. Department of Labor, LCA disclosure data. A record of filings already made, not a commitment to sponsor.

Who this role is best for

Best suited to technical leaders with embedded systems experience working in autonomous vehicle development.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with advanced technical degrees and 9+ years in systems software development for performance-critical environments
    — “Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or related field.”
  • Individuals with leadership experience in cross-functional, safety-critical projects
    — “This is a highly cross-functional and high-impact role.”
  • Engineers with strong C++ skills and deep knowledge of concurrency and performance optimization
    — “Strong proficiency in modern C++, with deep experience in concurrency, multi-threading, debugging, memory management, and performance optimization.”

Things to consider

  • The role requires active collaboration across multiple teams, including hardware and safety.
    — “partner with autonomy, hardware, safety, validation, operations, and supplier-facing teams”
  • The position involves significant responsibility in ensuring safety-critical systems are reliable and efficient.
    — “deliver robust systems for safety-critical autonomous vehicles”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in building distributed systems with low-latency and high-reliability components
    — “Develop onboard distributed systems, including high-performance communication between compute nodes”
  • Showcase leadership in translating ambiguous requirements into scalable architecture
    — “Translate ambiguous product, safety, and autonomy needs into scalable technical architecture”
  • Emphasize your ability to diagnose and resolve complex hardware-software integration issues
    — “Diagnose complex, hard-to-reproduce failures across software, hardware, sensors, compute, networking”
  • Demonstrate your experience with embedded compute and sensor integration in autonomous systems
    — “Experience building reliable, high-performance software for robotics, embedded systems, autonomous systems”
  • Show your track record in mentoring engineers and establishing best practices
    — “Mentor engineers, establish engineering best practices, and raise the technical bar”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Define and drive technical direction for onboard infrastructure
  • Architect core onboard systems for embedded compute and sensor integration
  • Lead system-level performance and reliability efforts
Typical background
Experience in developing Level 4 autonomous driving technology

Skills & requirements

Required

Autonomy SoftwareHigh-performance ComputingReliability EngineeringDistributed SystemsSensor IntegrationRuntime SystemsCommunication PipelinesAPI DevelopmentObservabilityAutomated Validation

Preferred

Latency ReductionResource EfficiencyMemory ManagementThread/process Lifecycle ManagementLarge-scale Autonomy/sensor Data PipelinesDebugging Complex Systems

Stack & domain

Autonomous Driving TechnologySensor IntegrationRuntime FrameworksDistributed ExecutionPerformance And ReliabilityLatency ReductionResource EfficiencyObservabilityAutomated ValidationToolingOnboard SystemsEmbedded ComputeHigh-performance CommunicationModule OrchestrationMonitoringLoggingDiagnosticsLarge-scale Autonomy/sensor Data PipelinesRoot Cause AnalysisMitigationLong-term PreventionTechnical LeadershipCross-functional CollaborationStakeholder AlignmentMentoringSystem DesignProblem-solvingDecision-makingTeamworkCommunicationLeadershipAutonomous VehiclesSelf-drivingAISafety-critical SystemsVehicle PlatformsOnboard InfrastructureAutonomy Software

About the role

Original posting from Nuro

Who We Are 

Nuro believes self-driving vehicles are the most immediate and profound opportunity for AI to drive positive change in the physical world. Safer streets, more time for what matters, and easier access to the world around us, that’s why we’re building a universal autonomy platform: self-driving for all roads and all rides.

Founded in 2016, Nuro is a physical AI company developing Level 4 autonomous driving technology for a wide range of vehicles, use cases, and markets. Powered by the Nuro Driver™, our universal autonomy platform enables the global mobility ecosystem to deploy autonomy at scale, from robotaxis and logistics fleets to personal vehicles.

With years of real-world deployment experience and a flexible, partner-led business model, Nuro is working toward a future where millions of autonomous vehicles powered by our technology help make everyday life safer, easier, and more connected.

Nuro has raised over $2B in capital from Uber, NVIDIA, Google, Softbank, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, and other leading investors.

About the Role

As a Principal Technical Lead on Onboard Performance, you will help define and build the high-performance, highly reliable foundation of the Nuro Driver. This role requires deep technical leadership across sensor and compute integration, onboard runtime systems, distributed execution, and autonomy software performance.

You will architect hardware-agnostic device interfaces, inter-device communication pipelines, runtime APIs, and onboard software platforms that enable Nuro’s autonomy stack to run safely and efficiently across current and future vehicle platforms. You will also lead system-wide performance and reliability efforts, including latency reduction, resource efficiency, observability, automated validation, and tooling for debugging complex onboard systems.

This is a highly cross-functional and high-impact role. You will partner with autonomy, hardware, safety, validation, operations, and supplier-facing teams to integrate next-generation sensors and compute platforms, resolve reliability and performance issues, and shape the long-term technical direction of Nuro’s onboard infrastructure. We are looking for a technical leader who can operate across team boundaries, align multiple stakeholders, mentor engineers, and deliver robust systems for safety-critical autonomous vehicles.

About the Work

Define and drive technical direction for Nuro’s onboard infrastructure across Device Platform, Performance, and Onboard Systems.

Architect core onboard systems for embedded compute, sensor integration, runtime frameworks, inter-device communication, and distributed execution across current and future vehicle platforms.

Lead system-level performance and reliability efforts, including latency reduction, resource efficiency, memory management, thread/process lifecycle management, observability, automated testing, and continuous validation.

Build foundational libraries, APIs, tools, and frameworks that enable autonomy and infrastructure teams to develop reliable, low-latency, high-performance software.

Develop onboard distributed systems, including high-performance communication between compute nodes, module orchestration, monitoring, logging, diagnostics, and large-scale autonomy/sensor data pipelines.

Diagnose complex, hard-to-reproduce failures across software, hardware, sensors, compute, networking, and autonomy workloads; drive root cause, mitigation, and long-term prevention.

Partner with autonomy, hardware, safety, validation, operations, and suppliers to define requirements, evaluate and integrate next-generation platforms, and ensure safe, reliable deployment.

Translate ambiguous product, safety, and autonomy needs into scalable technical architecture; align teams on design direction, execution plans, interfaces, and long-term platform strategy.

Mentor engineers, establish engineering best practices, and raise the technical bar across Onboard Infrastructure and partner teams.

About You

Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or related field.

9+ years of software engineering experience building production-quality systems software.

5+ years of technical leadership experience, including leading complex projects, setting technical direction, and driving cross-team alignment.

Strong proficiency in modern C++, with deep experience in concurrency, multi-threading, debugging, memory management, and performance optimization.

Experience building reliable, high-performance software for robotics, embedded systems, autonomous systems, distributed systems, or other performance-critical platforms.

Strong systems-level expertise, with the ability to reason across operating systems, device interfaces, runtime frameworks, and application-level workloads.

Proven ability to diagnose complex performance, reliability, concurrency, and hardware/software integration issues.

Ability to translate ambiguous requirements into scalable architecture and mentor engineers through design and execution.

Exceptional technical communication and stakeholder management skills, with the verified ability to influence senior technical leadership, cross-functional partners, and external vendors on high-impact architectural decisions.

Bonus Points

Experience with robotics hardware, sensors, embedded compute platforms, or autonomous vehicle systems.

Deep knowledge of Linux, device drivers, computer architecture, kernel behavior, and communication protocols such as Ethernet, PCIe, USB, SPI, I2C, or UART.

Experience with high-performance communication, IPC, networking stacks, logging, monitoring, diagnostics, or data collection systems.

Experience with GPU programming, NVIDIA platforms, CUDA, image processing, machine learning infrastructure, or accelerated compute.

Experience working with hardware suppliers or integrating next-generation sensor and compute platforms.

At Nuro, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. For this position, the reasonably expected base pay range is between $258,080 and $387,370 for the level at which this job has been scoped. Your base pay will depend on several factors, including your experience, qualifications, education, location, and skills. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for an annual performance bonus, equity, and a competitive benefits package.

At Nuro, we celebrate differences and are committed to a diverse workplace that fosters inclusion and psychological safety for all employees. Nuro is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and expressly prohibits any form of workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics.

Source: Nuro careers

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