Linux Kernel Engineer - High-Performance Network & Drivers

Starlink; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Long-term incentives

Medical, vision, dental

401(k)

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Parental leave

Paid vacation

Paid holidays

Company shuttle

Job summary

SpaceX in Washington state is hiring a Software Engineer, Linux Kernel (Starlink) to join the Platform Core team. You will work at the lowest layers of the software stack on our satellite-based AI supercomputer, building a lean Linux-based OS and writing high-performance device drivers.

You will collaborate with hardware teams to bring up new hardware, improve observability tools, and strengthen security and hardening.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, math, or science discipline, or 2+ years of professional software development experience in lieu of a degree.
• Hands-on system programming experience in C or C++.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain a lean, high‑reliability Linux-based OS for the Starlink platform and satellite network fabric.
• Write or rewrite high‑performance device drivers to maximize hardware capabilities.
• Deploy, operate, and debug the platform in production with rigorous root‑cause analysis and observability tooling.
• Collaborate with hardware teams to design and bring up new generations of hardware and OS/software stacks.

Skills

C/C++

Linux kernel

Kernel debugging

Device drivers

Hardware bring‑up

Networking interfaces

Security / hardening

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

GDB

ftrace

perf

Wireshark/tcpdump

eBPF

Job description

SpaceX in Washington state is hiring a Software Engineer, Linux Kernel (Starlink) to join the Platform Core team. You will work at the lowest layers of the software stack on our satellite-based AI supercomputer, building a lean Linux-based OS and writing high-performance device drivers.

You will collaborate with hardware teams to bring up new hardware, improve observability tools, and strengthen security and hardening.