Linux Kernel Upstream Engineer

X4 Group; City Of London; Remote; GBP 96,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

X4 Group is seeking an experienced Linux kernel engineer for upstream ARM SoC enablement on a contract basis. The role focuses on new silicon enablement, driver development, and upstream submission, working with a major global semiconductor company.

You will develop peripheral drivers from hardware manuals, craft Device Tree entries, and perform hardware bring-up and validation across multiple SoC variants. Remote, Europe-wide engagement with a high pay rate is expected.

Qualifications

• Experience writing drivers from hardware manuals or datasheets (platform drivers, probe/remove, clocks, resets, interrupts, DMA).
• Upstream Linux contributions: patches accepted into mainline, working with maintainers, responding to review.

Responsibilities

• Develop peripheral and controller drivers from the hardware manual.
• Create Device Tree entries and driver probes; support clocks, resets, interrupts, and DMA.
• Perform hardware validation and upstream submission; handle multiple SoC variants without duplicating drivers.
• Hardware debugging on real boards and practical problem solving across ARM/SoC environments.

Skills

C programming

Linux kernel knowledge

ARM/SoC experience

Driver development experience

Upstream patches/maintainer experience

Hardware debugging

Tools

Device Tree

Kernel debugging tools

Job description

Linux Kernel Engineer - Upstream / ARM SoC Enablement (Contract, Fully Remote)

I'm looking for an experienced Linux kernel engineer to work on new ARM SoC enablement with a major global semiconductor company. This is on a long term, high pay, fully remote working basis.

What the work looks like

This is new-silicon work, not maintenance of an existing BSP. You'd take peripherals from the hardware reference manual through Device Tree and driver development, then on to hardware validation and upstream submission.

The core areas are:

• Peripheral and controller drivers written from the hardware manual: SPI, I C, DMA and interrupt routing
• High-speed interfaces such as PCIe (helpful, but not essential)
• Device Tree development
• Board bring-up and low-level hardware debugging

You'll also touch ASoC, pinctrl, Ethernet/PHY and thermal drivers. You don't need to know all of these in depth.

The kind of problem you'll be solving

A peripheral won't probe, enumerate or raise interrupts, and you have to work out why. Is it the hardware configuration, the clocks or resets, the interrupt routing, the Device Tree, the status register handling, or the driver? There's also the challenge of supporting several SoC variants that share IP but differ in registers, interrupts and quirks, without ending up with duplicated drivers.

What I'm looking for

• Strong C and Linux kernel fundamentals, with ARM/SoC experience
• Experience writing drivers from a hardware manual or datasheet (platform drivers, probe/remove, clocks, resets, interrupts, DMA), not only Device Tree changes or small fixes
• Upstream Linux contributions: patches accepted into mainline, working with maintainers, responding to review, and handling patch series
• Hands-on hardware debugging on real boards
• A bonus: Yocto, CIP kernels, or automated hardware testing (pytest/LAVA)

If you've worked on vendor kernels or BSPs and have upstream patches behind you, I'd like to hear from you. You don't need PCIe experience, or a long list of subsystems on your CV.

Fully remote (work from anywhere in Europe)

Contract role, highly competitive rate

Real silicon, real hardware

Genuine upstream Linux work