NIC Kernel Driver Managing Engineer

Cornelis Networks, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

401(k) with company match

Job summary

Cornelis Networks, Inc. seeks a Managing Engineer to lead the NIC Linux kernel driver team.

You will manage up to six kernel engineers, review patches, and drive upstream engagement across linux-rdma and netdev while coordinating with ASIC, firmware, and validation groups to stabilize the kernel/user-space interface. The role emphasizes pre-silicon bring-up, upstream stewardship, and cross-stack collaboration, with a remote-friendly US-based arrangement and a strong focus on performance,

Qualifications

• 8+ years of systems/kernel software engineering in C on Linux.
• 2+ years of leadership experience in people management or team lead roles.
• Hands-on Linux device driver development: PCIe, DMA, MSI-X, interrupt handling, memory management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the kernel driver team; own release planning and delivery.
• Review patches and drive debugging of complex kernel issues.
• Drive pre-silicon bring-up using emulation and FPGA prototypes.
• Drive upstream submissions and maintain in-tree drivers across distributions.
• Collaborate with ASIC/silicon, firmware, and validation teams to define interfaces.
• Establish CI, regression, and release readiness.

Skills

Linux kernel

C programming

Driver development

High‑performance networking

Open‑source contribution

Communication

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE

Master's or PhD a plus

Tools

Git

Kernel debugging (ftrace, perf)

Job description

Cornelis Networks delivers the world’s highest performance scale-out networking solutions for AI and HPC datacenters. Our differentiated architecture seamlessly integrates hardware, software and system level technologies to maximize the efficiency of GPU, CPU and accelerator-based compute clusters at any scale. Our solutions drive breakthroughs in AI & HPC workloads, empowering our customers to push the boundaries of innovation.

Backed by top-tier venture capital and strategic investors, we are committed to innovation, performance and scalability - solving the world’s most demanding computational challenges with our next-generation networking solutions.

We are a fast-growing, forward-thinking team of architects, engineers, and business professionals with a proven track record of building successful products and companies. As a global organization, our team spans multiple U.S. states and six countries, and we continue to expand with exceptional talent in onsite, hybrid, and fully remote roles.

We are seeking a Managing Engineer to lead the team responsible for Cornelis Networks' NIC Linux kernel drivers. We seek a technical manager; responsibilities are split between leading, planning, and growing a team of up to 6 kernel engineers, and reviewing patches, debugging, and contributing code. Our drivers are developed upstream-first and maintained in-tree with Linux, so you will drive both product delivery and community engagement across the kernel, RDMA, and netdev subsystems. You will own the Linux kernel drivers for three generations of our own silicon: CN5000 at 400 Gbps; CN6000 at 800 Gbps on PCIe Gen6, bringing a hardware-accelerated RoCEv2 datapath and standard netdev support alongside Omni-Path; and CN7000 at 1.6 Tbps with Ultra Ethernet.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership & Delivery: Lead the kernel driver team; own release planning, execution tracking, and delivery of driver features aligned to the Cornelis product roadmap. Engage in headcount planning, performance management, and hiring.
• Hands-On Technical Contribution: Perform code and design reviews, contribute patches, and lead debug of complex kernel issues (PCIe/MMIO, DMA, MSI-X and interrupt handling, memory registration and address translation, command/completion ring management, device reset and error recovery).
• Pre-Silicon Bring-Up: Drive driver enablement ahead of tapeout using emulation, FPGA prototypes, and virtual PCIe device models, so first-silicon bring-up is measured in days rather than months. Emulation is deployed from day one on our ASIC programs; your team is a first-class consumer of it.
• Upstream & Open-Source Stewardship: Drive patch submission and review cycles on linux-rdma, netdev, and related mailing lists; keep drivers in-tree and supported across RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntu distributions.
• Cross-Stack Collaboration: Partner with ASIC/silicon, firmware, libfabric provider, middleware, and validation teams to define and stabilize the kernel/user-space interface (ioctls, mmap'd rings, doorbells, dma-buf for GPU and accelerator memory).
• Quality, Test & Release:
• Establish and maintain CI, regression, and stress coverage for driver changes; own driver documentation, module packaging, and release readiness.
• Customer & Field Impact: Triage escalations, reproduce customer-reported issues, and translate findings into prioritized fixes with clear status communication to stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 8+ years of systems/kernel software engineering experience in C on Linux; Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience). Master's or Doctorate a plus.
• 2+ years of formal or informal leadership experience (people manager, team lead, or tech lead) with demonstrated interest in people management.
• Hands-on Linux device driver development: PCIe device enumeration, BAR/MMIO register access, DMA mapping, interrupt handling, locking and concurrency, and kernel debugging (crash/kdump, ftrace, perf, kgdb).
• Depth in at least one high-performance networking subsystem — for example, the Linux RDMA core stack (uverbs/ib_core, rdma-core, QP/CQ/MR lifecycle), the netdev
• datapath (NAPI, multi-queue, XDP/AF_XDP, ethtool/devlink), or an upstream vendor NIC/fabric driver such as mlx5, irdma, ice, bnxt_re, efa, or hfi1.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose performance and correctness issues in low-latency, high-throughput data paths.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects, with familiarity with upstream Linux patch and review processes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to represent the team's work to engineering leadership and customers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience as a maintainer or reviewer for an upstream Linux driver.
• Familiarity with HPC fabrics, such as Omni-Path, InfiniBand, Slingshot or other host fabric interface drivers.
• Experience with RoCEv2, congestion control, and/or Ethernet-based RDMA deployments.
• Familiarity with Ultra Ethernet (UEC/UET) specifications.
• Knowledge of libfabric/OFI provider interfaces and kernel/user-space co-design.
• Experience with GPUDirect RDMA, dma-buf, and CUDA/ROCm memory interoperability.
• Experience with driver packaging and distro enablement (RHEL/SLES/Ubuntu), and cluster-scale benchmarking, profiling, and optimization.

Location:

Remote: This role fully supports remote work for employees residing within the United States

We offer a competitive compensation package that includes equity, cash, and incentives, along with health and retirement benefits. Our dynamic, flexible work environment provides the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most influential names in the semiconductor industry.

At Cornelis Networks your base salary is only one component of your comprehensive total rewards package. Your base pay will be determined by factors such as your skills, qualifications, experience, and location relative to the hiring range for the position. Depending on your role, you may also be eligible for performance-based incentives, including an annual bonus or sales incentives.

In addition to your base pay, you’ll have access to a broad range of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, as well as disability and life insurance, a dependent care flexible spending account, accidental injury insurance, and pet insurance. We also offer generous paid holidays, 401(k) with company match, and Open Time Off (OTO) for regular full-time exempt employees. Other paid time off benefits include sick time, bonding leave, and pregnancy disability leave.

Cornelis Networks does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services.

is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process.