Linux Kernel Engineer — CI/Release Lead

Apple Inc.; Dublin; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Dublin, Ireland, is seeking a Linux Kernel Engineer to own kernel lifecycle from CI to production-quality releases.

You will design, build, and operate CI and validation pipelines that span multiple hardware platforms and distributions, triage regressions, and drive fixes to resolution. You will port, maintain, and upstream device drivers, collaborating with SRE, platform, and hardware teams to ensure kernel stability, performance, and debuggability for real-world workloads.

Qualifications

• Experience developing or maintaining the Linux kernel or low-level system software.
• Debug kernel-level issues using perf, ftrace, bpftrace, crash, gdb, or similar.
• Deep understanding of kernel tuning for stability and performance across many subsystem domains.
• Hands-on experience developing CI/CD systems integrating operating system components and managing kernel releases.
• Strong programming skills in C, plus proficiency in at least one of Rust, Go, Python, or Bash.
• Solid understanding of operating system fundamentals: processes, memory management, filesystems, networking, scheduling, interrupts, and hardware/driver interactions.
• Experience working in a RHEL based Linux environment, including RPM packaging and the RHEL kernel back port and release process.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills; comfortable working with cross-functional teams (SRE, platform, hardware, security).

Responsibilities

• Design, build and operate CI and validation pipelines that compile, test, and release Linux kernels across multiple hardware platforms and Linux distributions.
• Lead triage of kernel regressions, investigate crashes and performance issues, drive fixes to resolution.
• Collaborate with engineers across Apple to port, maintain, and upstream device drivers, shepherd kernel changes into production.

Skills

Linux kernel

Kernel debugging

Kernel tuning

CI/CD for kernel

C programming

Scripting languages

OS fundamentals

RHEL packaging

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Job description

Apple Inc. in Dublin, Ireland, is seeking a Linux Kernel Engineer to own kernel lifecycle from CI to production-quality releases.

You will design, build, and operate CI and validation pipelines that span multiple hardware platforms and distributions, triage regressions, and drive fixes to resolution. You will port, maintain, and upstream device drivers, collaborating with SRE, platform, and hardware teams to ensure kernel stability, performance, and debuggability for real-world workloads.