Senior Kernel Support Engineer (remote work)

TuxCare; Warszawa; Remote; PLN 470,000 - 705,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Vacation time

Medical insurance

Education budget

Gym reimbursement

Co-working stipend

Patent rewards

Job summary

TuxCare Inc. is seeking a Senior Kernel Support Engineer for KernelCare. This role focuses on analyzing live patching issues, kernel crashes, and complex enterprise incidents. You will collaborate with patch teams to extend support for new kernels and distros, and you’ll serve as the primary engineer for Sev 1 customers, including on-call duties.

The position emphasizes deep Linux kernel expertise, communication with customers, and proactive problem solving in a fully remote environment.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of Linux kernel internals, including memory management, VFS, networking, scheduling, and locking.

Responsibilities

• Analyze crashes, hangs and reboots related to live patching: determine if the live patch caused it and report to the customer.
• Investigate patching failures: apply failures, stuck transitions, unknown symbols, and conflicts with backup tools.
• Investigate missing patches and new kernel/distro support requests; coordinate with patch team to add support.
• Answer deep CVE questions by checking patch sources and docs.
• Identify root cause, provide patch team with a clear report, and guide fixes.
• Be the named engineer for an enterprise customer during Sev 1 and own the case until closure.
• Assist during major CVE events.
• On-call for Sev 1 with the team (24/7 is a contractual obligation).

Skills

Linux kernel internals

Kernel crash analysis

C programming

Vendor advisories

Production incident handling

English communication

Tools

crash

vmcore analysis

kernel oops decoding

Job description

TuxCare offers a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions for Linux and open-source software designed for enterprise organizations. With TuxCare, companies can automate live vulnerability patching, minimize downtime, ensure security and compliance, and rely on a team with deep expertise in Linux security. The solutions cover the most popular Linux distributions, end-of-life systems, programming languages, and more. Learn more at tuxcare.com.

KernelCare provides automated live patching for Linux kernels without requiring reboots. Our Endless Lifecycle Support products keep end-of-life Linux distributions secure by backporting important security and bug fixes to older software versions used by enterprise customers.

We are looking for a Senior Kernel Support Engineer to join our small, experienced team at KernelCare.

An AI agent handles first-line triage, allowing our engineers to focus on complex technical cases that require their expertise. The team also develops and maintains tools and AI-powered agents to automate support processes and improve efficiency.

What you will do

• Analyze crashes, hangs and reboots related to live patching: oops and panic logs, vmcore with the crash tool, KASAN reports. Decide if the live patch caused it or not, and say so to the customer.
• Investigate problems during patching: apply failures, stuck transitions, unknown symbols, freeze conflicts with backup tools.
• Investigate missing patches and new kernel or distro support requests, and work with the patch team to add support.
• Answer deep CVE questions: check the patch sources, not only the docs.
• Find the root cause, give the patch team a clear report, and follow it to the fix.
• Be the named engineer for an enterprise customer during a Sev 1: their hosts are down, you own the case until it is closed.
• Help during big CVE events.
• On-call for Sev 1 with the team (24/7 is a contract obligation; we share it).

Must haves

• Strong knowledge of Linux kernel internals, including memory management (MM), VFS, networking, scheduling, and locking mechanisms.

• Hands‑on experience with Linux kernel crash analysis, including the use of debugging tools such as crash, vmcore analysis, and kernel oops decoding.
• Good C programming skills, with the ability to read and analyze Linux kernel code and patches to identify root causes of issues.
• Experience working with vendor security advisories (RHSA, USN, DSA) and kernel changelogs, including Git history.
• Experience handling critical production incidents and technical escalations for enterprise customers, with the ability to communicate complex technical issues and investigation progress clearly.
• Excellent written English communication skills, with the ability to explain technical findings clearly and concisely.

Nice‑to‑haves

• Familiarity with Linux live patching technologies (kpatch, livepatch, ksplice).
• Experience with virtualization and container technologies, including Proxmox, KVM, OpenVZ, LVE, and cgroups.
• Experience using Python and shell scripting for automation, troubleshooting, and log analysis.
• Familiarity with AI/LLM tools for debugging and technical investigations.
• Experience in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE).

What's in it for you?

• A focus on professional development.
• Interesting and challenging projects.
• Fully remote work with flexible working hours, that allows you to schedule your day and work from any location worldwide.
• Paid 24 days of vacation per year, 10 days of national holidays, and unlimited sick leaves.
• Compensation for private medical insurance.
• Co‑working and gym/sports reimbursement.
• Budget for education.
• The opportunity to receive a reward for the most innovative idea that the company can patent.

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