Linux Kernel Consultant (Remote/Anywhere)

Collabora; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Flexible hours

Budget for setup

Coworking support

Wellbeing checks

Sabbatical after 5y

Open source support

Conference participation

Job summary

Collabora seeks a seasoned Linux kernel engineer for a fully remote role, delivering upstream-focused kernel changes for consumer devices and advising client engineering teams on trade-offs and delivery timelines.

The position emphasizes diagnosing complex issues, contributing to mainline, and balancing upstream goals with practical constraints, while working independently in an asynchronous environment with strong English communication.

Qualifications

• Solid Linux kernel development experience and the ability to navigate unfamiliar subsystems independently.
• Product support experience, including diagnosing and resolving end-user issues.
• Strong spoken and written English for patch reviews, documentation, and client discussions.
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and contribute changes to mainline Linux, including work in areas such as scheduling, power management, drivers, and core subsystems.
• Diagnose and reproduce product issues, including reports with limited reproduction details or no useful stack trace.
• Optimize Linux for consumer devices and investigate behavior that requires new or adapted kernel capabilities.
• Collaborate with upstream maintainers and participate in the wider kernel community.
• Translate customer needs into technical plans, explain decisions, and set realistic expectations.
• Balance code quality and upstream goals with hardware limits, business needs, and delivery timelines.

Skills

Linux kernel development

Product support

English proficiency

Remote work

Tools

KernelCI

Jenkins

LAVA

BSP development

Arch

Yocto

Buildroot

Rust

Job description

Role overview

Develop and improve Linux kernel code for widely used consumer devices, contributing changes upstream while tackling difficult product and subsystem problems. The role combines hands-on kernel engineering with technical consulting: you will work with client engineering teams, explain trade-offs, and encourage upstream-first solutions that balance long-term maintainability with delivery constraints. It offers scope to deepen subsystem expertise and build toward technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Develop and contribute changes to mainline Linux, including work in areas such as scheduling, power management, drivers, and core subsystems.
• Diagnose and reproduce product issues, including reports with limited reproduction details or no useful stack trace.
• Optimize Linux for consumer devices and investigate behavior that requires new or adapted kernel capabilities.
• Collaborate with upstream maintainers and participate in the wider kernel community.
• Translate customer needs into technical plans, explain decisions, and set realistic expectations.
• Balance code quality and upstream goals with hardware limits, business needs, and delivery timelines.

Requirements

• Solid Linux kernel development experience and the ability to navigate unfamiliar subsystems independently.
• Product support experience, including diagnosing and resolving end-user issues.
• Strong spoken and written English for patch reviews, documentation, and client discussions.
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment.

Nice to have

• Upstream contribution history or client-facing technical consulting experience.
• Experience with schedulers, power management, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or audio subsystems.
• Kernel testing CI tools such as KernelCI, Jenkins, or LAVA; board support package development or board bring-up.
• Experience with distributions or build systems such as Arch, Debian, Yocto, or Buildroot, or programming in Rust.

Benefits and work setup

The role is fully remote, with a preference for European or US East Coast working hours. Conference participation and open source contributions are supported, and the role has no on-call rotation or out-of-hours incident response expectations. Other provisions may include flexible hours, an office setup budget, coworking support, wellbeing assessments, and a sabbatical or retention benefit after five years. Compensation is location-dependent.