Linux Kernel Engineer Full-time

Do you want to be part of the team delivering custom Linux kernels for the most popular operating system in many of the world’s largest clouds?  Would you like to contribute to the leading-edge kernels powering your favorite desktop or laptop as well as underpinning devices for Canonical’s AI/ML, robotics, edge and IoT products? Come join the kernel team at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.  We are a growing international software company that works with the open source community to deliver Ubuntu. Our mission is to bring the benefits of free software to the widest possible audience and we believe the best way to fuel innovation is to give innovators the technology they need.  

Life at Canonical is anything but corporate.  As a company that exists to support one of today’s most important open source projects, we are changing the world on a daily basis.  It’s a dynamic environment in which every member of the team takes personal responsibility for everything they produce.

A secure, high-performance Linux kernel is a crucial component of Canonical products for the success of our enterprise customers, partners and Ubuntu projects.  As a member of the globally distributed Canonical Kernel Team, you will work on a variety of fast-moving and dynamic projects, providing you with a broad range of software engineering challenges.

Role summary
The Canonical Kernel Team is responsible for maintaining all supported Ubuntu kernels in addition to driving development of the latest Ubuntu kernel for future Ubuntu releases.  We are looking to hire a motivated and experienced kernel engineer into the Canonical Kernel Team to help contribute to our ever-growing list of kernels and kernel engineering challenges.

Key Responsibilities and Accountability

• Use our extensive tool set to build and review our existing kernels
• Building new kernels for existing and new Canonical products
  Maintaining Ubuntu kernel git repositories
• Troubleshooting a wide variety of kernel engineering problems both in our development environment as well as our customer’s Linux-based products.
• Developing, reviewing and submitting kernel patches
  Assisting our kernel security engineering in backporting important kernel CVE’s
• Performing other kernel backports for resolving customer issues and requests
• Add new kernel support for hardware enablement requests
  Perform a wide variety of kernel-based testing and test development

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s or Masters degree in a STEM field
• Demonstrable proficiency in C programming language
• Expert knowledge of git
• Solid scripting skills in Bash or Python (preferred)
• Strong experience with kernel debug and patching
• Knowledge of upstream kernel processes and release cycle
• Familiarity with several important kernel subsystems
• Well organized and able to deliver consistently to schedule
• Experience interacting with upstream kernel developers and mailing lists
• Ability to thrive in a globally distributed team through self-discipline and self-motivation
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to present oneself in a professional manner when interacting with colleagues, partners, and community
  Note: Some international travel will be required.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Ubuntu/Debian packaging experience
• Snap packaging experience
• Familiarity with Ubuntu Kernel SRU process and cadence
• Experience using Launchpad
• Kernel testing/benchmarking experience
• Understanding in one/some of several processor architectures such as x86-64, amd64, arm, etc.

Employee Benefits Canonical Offers:

• Flexible working options/work from home
• Tuition and Training Reimbursement
• Annual Bonus Plan
• Holiday for Service (Annual Leave)
• Conference Leave
• Priority Pass
• Laptop Refresh Benefit

Canonical believes a diverse workforce enhances our ability to deliver world class software and services which meet the world’s computing needs. We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.