System Software Engineer salary
2 market ranges · employer-stated pay · updated Oct 17, 2026
The best-evidenced figure here is for system software engineer roles at mid level across the United States: 11 postings where the employer stated pay put the middle half between $164,625 and $191,825, with a median of $181,750.
Every range here is counted from real postings, never modelled. 1 of the 2 ranges in the table rests on fewer than 10 postings and is marked hint: treat it as a hint rather than a benchmark.
Every measured range
2 by market and level| Market | Level | Market range | Median | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States · country-wide | Mid | $164,625 – $191,825 | $181,750 | 11 |
| United States · country-wide | Senior | $200,700 – $295,813 | $225,000 | 7hint |
Entry is junior titles. Mid is mid-level and manager titles. Senior is senior titles. Lead is director, VP and above. Rows marked hint rest on fewer than 10 postings: read them as a hint, not a benchmark.
Ranges span the 25th to 75th percentile of employer-stated base pay for the market and level. Median is the 50th percentile. Sample is the number of postings measured.
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Open system software engineer roles · 24 with stated pay
this job's paywhere most pay sits here, $137,000–$287,500scale $80,000–$410,000
System Software Engineer - Robotics Simulation NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara New $124,000–$195,500 1d ago System Software Engineer, Performance - CUDA Driver NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $124,000–$195,500 10d ago Senior System Software Engineer, Enterprise MODS NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 10d ago Battery Management System (BMS) software Engineer Lyten · San Jose $116,600–$175,000 2w ago Senior System Software Engineer - GPU SW NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 4w ago Senior System Software Engineer – Linux-Tegra Power Management and Performance Optimization NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 4w ago Senior System Software Engineer - Dynamo-Triton Inference Server NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $224,000–$356,500 5w ago System Software Engineer Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Sunnyvale $120,500–$243,000 5w ago Senior System Software Engineer - AV Platform NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 5w ago Senior System Software Engineer, Software-Defined Networking NVIDIA · Remote · US $224,000–$356,500 5w ago Senior System Software Engineer – Linux-Tegra Power Management and Performance Optimization NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 6w ago Senior System Software Engineer - Platform Software NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $224,000–$356,500 6w ago Senior System Software Engineer, Software Defined Networking NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 7w ago 
System Software Engineer (HPC) KLA · Milpitas $136,300–$231,700 7w ago Principal System Software Engineer - AV Platform NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $272,000–$431,250 8w ago Senior System Software Engineer - AV Platform NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 8w ago Senior Compute System Software Engineer NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 8w ago Senior System Software Engineer, Platform and Performance - GeForce Now NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $224,000–$356,500 2mo ago Senior System Software Engineer - Simulation Software NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $152,000–$241,500 2mo ago Senior System Software Engineer, SoC Power and Performance - O-RAN Infrastructure NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $152,000–$241,500 2mo ago 
Principal System Software Engineer, AI Inference Execution d-Matrix · Santa Clara $195,000–$285,000 2mo ago 
Camera System Software Engineer Hp · Austin $137,000–$202,000 3mo ago System Software Engineer Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Sunnyvale $120,500–$243,000 4mo ago 
System Software Engineer, Consumer Devices OpenAI · San Francisco $347,000–$385,000 10mo ago