Senior Embedded Linux Engineer

Cantos Ventures; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 231,000; Full time

Job summary

Neros is seeking a Senior Embedded Linux Engineer to own the embedded Linux platform underpinning our drone systems. You will manage the distribution, kernel, bootloader, and SDK used by flight, ground-station, and autonomy software teams.

As a platform owner, your customers are internal engineering teams; you will ensure secure boot, reliable updates, and robust cross-team APIs while mentoring peers across disciplines.

Qualifications

• Deep embedded Linux experience with custom images (Yocto/Buildroot) ownership.
• Kernel-level competence: drivers, device tree, debugging on hardware.
• Bootloader experience (U-Boot), secure boot concepts for safe updates.

Responsibilities

• Own embedded Linux distribution and BSPs from bring-up to field updates.
• Own kernel configuration, drivers, and bootloader including secure boot and update/recovery paths.
• Design and maintain common runtime and libraries used by other teams, and the cross-compile toolchain and SDK.
• Bring up new compute platforms from power-on to production-ready OS image.
• Set platform best practices and mentor engineers across teams.

Skills

Embedded Linux

Kernel drivers

U-Boot bootloader

C programming

Scripting Python

Board bring-up

SDK/Libraries

Tools

Yocto

Buildroot

U-Boot

Job description

Who we are

Neros is a defense technology company rebuilding America’s drone industrial base. We design and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are tested in combat, iterated at startup speed, and built at massive scale. Our team culture is fast, hands-on, and obsessed with closing the gap between design and deployment.

As drones transform the character of warfare, Neros is delivering the systems the West needs to compete on the modern battlefield and deter the adversaries of democracy. We’re hiring engineers, operators, and builders who want to move fast, take on extreme ownership, and get capability into the hands of warfighters in months, not years.

What you will be doing

Neros builds first-person-view drones for the modern battlefield. As Senior Embedded Linux Engineer, you will own the embedded Linux platform underneath Neros products — the distribution, kernel, bootloader, and SDK that our flight, ground-station, and autonomy software teams build on. This is a platform-ownership role: your customers are other engineering teams, and your work is the foundation the whole product line stands on.

Responsibilities

• Own our embedded Linux distribution and board support packages (Yocto/Buildroot) — from board bring-up on new compute platforms to safe, reliable field updates


• Own kernel configuration, device drivers, and the bootloader, including secure boot and update/recovery paths


• Design and maintain the common runtime and libraries other teams consume — logging, telemetry, IPC, configuration — and the cross-compile toolchain and SDK


• Bring up new compute platforms: from first power-on to a production-ready OS image


• Set Linux platform best practices and mentor engineers across teams that build on the platform

You should have the following

• Deep embedded Linux experience — you have built and shipped products on custom Linux images (Yocto or Buildroot), owning the image rather than just using it


• Kernel-level competence: device drivers, device tree, and debugging kernel or boot failures on real hardware


• Bootloader experience (U-Boot or similar), including secure boot concepts and safe update/recovery design


• Strong C, comfortable on both sides of the kernel/user space boundary; scripting (Python/shell) for platform tooling


• Board bring-up experience — taking a new SoC/SoM from schematic review to a booting, stable OS


• Platform-as-product mindset: you have designed libraries, SDKs, or interfaces consumed by other teams — and kept them stable while the platform evolved underneath

Nice to have

• Radio/comms integration on embedded Linux


• Real-time tuning — PREEMPT_RT, latency analysis


• OTA/update systems — Mender, RAUC, SWUpdate, OSTree, or homegrown equivalents


• Upstream contributions — kernel, Yocto/OpenEmbedded, U-Boot


• Rust for systems work


• You fly — FPV, RC, or drones generally

US Salary Range

$165,000 – $231,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Neros' total compensation package.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. We welcome all applicants without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.