Principal Process Architect, Automotive Software

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior Process Architect to make the system of work behind its DriveOS platform coherent, practical, and scalable. The successful candidate will help a globally distributed organization turn quality, safety, cybersecurity, and AI/ML safety expectations into a coordinated, executable development model.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the canonical DriveOS process architecture, terminology, roles and interfaces across engineering, program management, quality, functional safety, and cybersecurity.
• Develop and govern a risk-based tailoring framework that defines variant applicability, decision rights, acceptance criteria, and traceable approvals before execution begins.
• Establish process maturity, release-readiness, and quality-gate criteria that surface risk early and support predictable, first-pass acceptance.
• Translate internal lifecycle expectations and applicable industry standards into clear, verifiable workflows, templates, guidance, and mentorship for development teams.
• Partner with domain leads, program managers, assessors, and tool owners to align plans, evidence, dependencies, and handoffs across product variants.
• Convert recurring defects, assessment observations, and release takeaways into durable improvements to the common process, measurements, and training.
• Drive process automation and AI-assisted workflows where they demonstrably reduce risk, rework, or cycle time while preserving governance, traceability, and engineering judgment.
• Serve as an independent technical authority for process coherence and efficiency, raising gaps with a clear statement of product impact, accountable owner, recovery plan, and date.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in engineering, computer science, systems engineering, quality, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience in automotive or other safety-critical product development, including process architecture, engineering quality, systems engineering, or technical program leadership.
• Deep understanding of Automotive SPICE, including how process capability, base practices, and generic practices translate into effective engineering behavior and assessable evidence.
• Strong understanding of the software and systems development lifecycle, including requirements, architecture, implementation, verification, validation, configuration, change, and release management.
• Hands-on experience with automotive functional safety, cybersecurity, and AI/ML safety requirements, including ISO 26262, ISO/SAE 21434, and ISO 8800.
• Proven track record to build risk-based tailoring, establish quality gates, and balance compliance needs with program realities in a complex, multi-variant product environment.
• Excellent written communication, facilitation, and influence skills; able to make process requirements actionable for engineers and decision-ready for senior leaders.
• Experience using data, workflow tooling, and AI-assisted capabilities to improve engineering processes without weakening accountability or traceability.

Benefits:

• Equity
• Comprehensive benefits package