Best culture in the valley but below average compensation for senior folks, very hard to grow - AV Perception Stack Engineer NVIDIA Employee Review

4.0
Apr 12, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Unbeatably the best work culture and most of people you work with are super nice. Very open, collaborative environment, you can reach out literally to anybody (including CEO) and get help. CEO reads status emails (!) and engages in discussions (!) with the teams about product directions and strategies (this is in AV org, not sure about others). I love the idea of workstream (virtual team) that can quickly summon people across the org, I haven't seen this type of thing in other companies. I am a senior sw developer with 22 years in the Valley and worked at a few companies here and I can compare. NVIDIA is the best without any doubt. Benefits are mostly fine, very good health insurance choices, some perks but don't expect a lot. New building was nice, but it felt unfinished, and any improvements take long time. NVIDIA generally has less office politics than I've seen in other companies. (Still it exists and frustrating). The 2016-2018 stock run up was nice, I didn't make a lot of money but still I can't complain. A lot of your personal experience may depend on the team you join. There are absolutely horrible teams to work in (avoid IPP at all cost!), but also there are greatest and brightest teams. I did an internal transfer from an-ok team to a much better team (the transfer process was smooth and everyone was supportive). To compare my RSU increased more than 2x, with better wlb, I got much much more interesting projects, and the brightest minds to work with. So, lots depends on the manager and the team.

Cons

Growth for senior engineers like myself is really really not what it should be. RSU grants (vest over 4 years) are calculated as % of your salary, depending on your rating you get from 0% to 50%. You get rated NI (need improvement), FC (full contributor) with 2 categories A and B, and TC (top contributor) again with A and B. So TC-A gets 50% of salary in RSU grants - this is the absolute top compensation bump you could achieve no matter how brilliant you are and how big an impact you make. I think the other scale is FC-B gets 20%, FC-A 30%, and TC-B 40%. NI gets 0%. Let's say you're a senior making 200K/year, if you're TC-A like myself it means you get 100K in RSU over 4 years, or 25K per year. After a couple cycles (2 years) you'll realize it's really not worth it all the effort and hard work for just extra 10% of salary. Stock can grow of course, but stock can also fall. Endeavor building was not planned well - not enough bathroom capacity for number of occupants, people end up waiting for 10-15 minutes just to use a bathroom. Really don't know what to say here. Parking situation is horrendous - again due to bad facility planning. If you come to work at 11am or later, forget about finding parking, valet will be full, and you end up parking illegally in neighbor parking lot. Go to work and fear all day you car will get towed. CEO was asked this question - his answer was - don't come to work at 11. Yeah, but we still have our lives, doctor appointments, our kids and loved ones, so it does happen sometimes I have to come to work later than usual.

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5.0
Jun 30, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

NVIDIA's PTO and Sick policies are compassionate and generous. Managers listen to employees' ideas. Employees get to work on a wider variety of projects than expected, and usually work closely with other teams to get things done. Collaboration is tight almost all of the time.

Cons

Employees don't always get insight into why they were assigned a particular project, or have much if any choice about what projects they get to work on. Managers are often too busy working on projects themselves to have the free time to meet with employees on a regular basis. This leads to short-term, reactive thinking rather than long-term visionary thinking.

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The product security organization has a very ideal work-life balance. The culture is strong on ownership and trust. There is a good sense of pride and collaboration across teams with low level of politics and high sense of "the project is the boss". Compensation is good for the roles. Merit increases and promotions are mostly transparent, but can vary from manager to manager.

Cons

Leadership direction can be whiplash at some times. Some initiatives feel directionless, while others feel misguided. Leadership does respond to push back and listens to employees though, but it often feels like managing up.

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