Linux Kernel Engineer for Embedded Devices

AI Chopping Block; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an Operating Systems Engineer focused on the Linux kernel to design, develop, and maintain kernel capabilities underpinning our consumer devices. You will own features across the stack, work across kernel and userspace boundaries, and influence system-level decisions from development to production.

You should have strong experience with Linux kernel subsystems and C, plus a practical understanding of concurrency, memory lifecycle, and performance tuning.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and debugging one or more Linux kernel subsystems.
• Proficiency in C for kernel and low-level systems development.
• Strong understanding of kernel concurrency, synchronization, and memory ownership.
• Experience delivering systems capabilities across kernel and userspace, including interfaces.
• Understanding of Linux kernel development principles and practices.

Responsibilities

• Build kernel capabilities and subsystem changes that support device features.
• Own features across the stack and define kernel/userspace boundaries.
• Debug complex system behavior using tracing, profiling, instrumentation, and diagnostics.
• Develop tests and workloads to demonstrate performance, power, and reliability gains.
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware, platform, and application engineers.
• Prepare upstream patches and maintain product-specific kernel changes.

Job description

OpenAI is seeking an Operating Systems Engineer focused on the Linux kernel to design, develop, and maintain kernel capabilities underpinning our consumer devices. You will own features across the stack, work across kernel and userspace boundaries, and influence system-level decisions from development to production.

You should have strong experience with Linux kernel subsystems and C, plus a practical understanding of concurrency, memory lifecycle, and performance tuning.