Linux Kernel Engineer — CI, Validation & Production Releases

Apple; Dublin; On-site; EUR 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple's Linux Kernel Engineering team seeks a seasoned Linux Kernel Engineer to own the kernel lifecycle from CI to production-quality releases.

You will design, build, and operate CI/validation pipelines across multiple platforms, triage regressions, and collaborate with SRE, platform, and hardware teams to ensure stability and performance.

Join us to impact Apple services with robust kernel infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Experience developing or maintaining the Linux kernel or low-level system software.
• Ability to debug kernel level issues (panics, hangs, performance regressions) with specialized tools.
• Deep understanding of kernel tuning for stability and performance across subsystems.
• Hands-on experience building CI/CD systems for OS components and kernel releases.
• Strong programming skills in C and proficiency in Rust, Go, Python, or Bash.
• Solid understanding of OS fundamentals: processes, memory management, filesystems, networking, and interrupts.
• Experience in RHEL-based Linux environment, RPM packaging and kernel backport/release processes.
• Excellent collaboration skills with SRE, platform, hardware, and security teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate CI and validation pipelines for Linux kernels across hardware and distributions.
• Lead triage of kernel regressions, investigate crashes, and drive fixes to resolution.
• Port, maintain, and upstream device drivers, shepherd kernel changes into production.
• Ensure kernel releases are robust, observable, and ready for real-world workloads at scale.

Skills

Linux kernel development

CI/CD systems

C programming

Rust/Go/Python/Bash

Debugging kernel issues

RHEL Linux experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Perf

ftrace

bpftrace

crash

gdb

RPM packaging

Job description

Apple's Linux Kernel Engineering team seeks a seasoned Linux Kernel Engineer to own the kernel lifecycle from CI to production-quality releases.

You will design, build, and operate CI/validation pipelines across multiple platforms, triage regressions, and collaborate with SRE, platform, and hardware teams to ensure stability and performance.

Join us to impact Apple services with robust kernel infrastructure.