Sakeena Fiza Helps NVIDIA Hardware Succeed at Scale

When Sakeena Fiza describes her work as a validation engineer at NVIDIA, she does so in terms more befitting a detective story than a world-class engineering lab.

“Validation engineers look in the shadows and shine a light into every corner,” Fiza said. “Every time we get a system, our first thought is: how can it break?”

“I always like to think of it as a mystery to solve,” she said.

At NVIDIA, the systems Fiza and her colleagues in the data center systems engineering lab investigate are the engines of the AI era. Her work begins before the rest of the world knows a product exists — in the lab — when a new system first receives power.

Components are brought up one by one, boards are integrated, firmware and software teams swarm, and engineers watch for the first signs of life.

One of Fiza’s earliest and most enduring memories of working at NVIDIA is the collective joy she experienced …