Senior Kernel / Virtualization Software Engineer

About the Position

We are looking for a Senior Kernel / Virtualization Software Engineer to join an engineering team building next-generation virtualization infrastructure. This is a hands-on role for an experienced systems engineer who enjoys working close to the hardware, solving complex performance and security challenges, and contributing to the core virtualization stack.

In this position, you will design and implement virtualization components at the boundary between the Linux kernel and userspace virtual machine monitors (VMMs), working with technologies similar to KVM, QEMU, and Firecracker.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain hypervisor and virtual machine monitor (VMM) components, including device models, vCPU lifecycle, memory management, and KVM interfaces.
• Develop Linux kernel components, including KVM subsystem enhancements, kernel modules, and device drivers.
• Build and optimize lightweight virtual machine monitors with a focus on fast boot times, minimal resource usage, strong isolation, and a reduced attack surface.
• Implement and improve virtual device emulation and paravirtualized interfaces, including virtio block, networking, vsock, and memory ballooning.
• Optimize virtualization performance across the guest and host boundary, improving boot time, memory footprint, I/O throughput, and latency.
• Investigate and resolve low-level issues spanning guest operating systems, host kernels, and VMM components using tools such as gdb, ftrace, perf, and crash analysis.
• Collaborate with security engineers to strengthen virtualization isolation and improve platform resilience.
• Participate in architecture discussions, perform code reviews, and mentor other engineers.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in systems software engineering with strong expertise in virtualization, operating systems, hypervisors, or low-level infrastructure.
• Expert-level C programming skills and solid experience with Rust.
• Deep understanding of Linux kernel internals, including virtual memory, scheduling, interrupts, system calls, and kernel/userspace interactions.
• Hands-on experience with hardware virtualization technologies such as Intel VT-x/VT-d or AMD-V/SVM and the KVM API.
• Experience working with one or more virtualization platforms such as KVM, QEMU, Firecracker, Cloud Hypervisor, or similar technologies.
• Strong understanding of the virtio specification and paravirtualized device models.
• Experience debugging complex systems using gdb, ftrace, perf, and related low-level tools.
• Familiarity with Git-based development workflows and open-source collaboration.

Nice to Have

• Contributions to Linux Kernel, QEMU, Firecracker, or other open-source virtualization projects.
• Experience with multi-tenant infrastructure, serverless platforms, container runtimes, or sandboxing technologies.
• Knowledge of confidential computing technologies such as Intel TDX or AMD SEV-SNP.
• Experience with ARM64 virtualization.
• Background in performance optimization, real-time systems, or security engineering.

Technical Stack

• Linux
• C
• Rust
• KVM
• QEMU
• Firecracker
• virtio
• x86_64
• ARM64
• Git

We Offer

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge virtualization technologies.
• Remote, full-time position.
• Competitive compensation package.
• Collaborative and innovative team environment.
• Professional growth and development opportunities.

About the Company

If you're passionate about low-level systems engineering and building high-performance virtualization technologies, we'd love to hear from you.