The position of "Senior System Software Engineer, Vulkan Performance" involves finding GPU and CPU bottlenecks in Vulkan and Proton-based games. These technologies are at the heart of Steam Play, a mechanism for running Windows games on Linux, Steam Deck, and SteamOS. Requires at least 5 years of experience in graphics or systems programming, knowledge of Vulkan or DirectX, and the ability to write efficient code in C and C++.
The "Senior Linux Graphics Engineer" vacancy is related to developing Dynamic Binary Translation solutions for running x86-64 games on Linux/ARM64 at native speed. The description directly mentions the box64 and FEX-Emu projects — x86 emulators for ARM, used including on Steam Deck and ARM laptops.
Both positions remain open. Part of the Linux community greeted the news with enthusiasm. Historically, NVIDIA has collaborated less with open systems than AMD, but the new vacancies indicate a shift in priorities.
This is a good sign for gamers, as improving Vulkan, Proton, and x86 emulation on ARM promises faster, more stable, and more compatible games on Linux and Steam Deck.