Senior Linux Kernel Camera/ISP Driver Engineer

Insight Global; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Insight Global is seeking a Senior Kernel Engineer for the Palo Alto office. You will be responsible for developing and maintaining Linux kernel camera and ISP drivers, requiring strong expertise in embedded systems and kernel debugging. The ideal candidate has over 10 years of experience with at least 5 years dedicated to Linux kernel driver development.

Your role includes integrating and debugging MIPI CSI-2 sensors, managing firmware interfaces, and diagnosing complex kernel issues. This position offers an opportunity to work in a collaborative environment with industry leaders.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of embedded systems experience, with a minimum of 5 years in Linux kernel driver development.
• Expert-level C programming in kernel space, including memory management and interrupt handling.
• Production-level experience with V4L2 I/O controls and media stack.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain Linux kernel camera and ISP drivers.
• Integrate and debug MIPI CSI-2 sensors and image pipelines.
• Implement and maintain firmware interfaces managing queues and synchronization.

Skills

C programming in kernel space

Embedded systems experience

Linux media stack

MIPI CSI-2 sensor knowledge

Kernel debugging tools

Tools

JTAG

GDB

ftrace

Job description

Job Description

As a Senior Kernel Engineer, you will take ownership of a Linux camera/ISP stack centered on the chipset vendor's ISP architecture. Your work will span V4L2 media pipeline implementation, firmware command/response integration, DMA-BUF and GPU-shared memory handling, sensor/CSI bring-up, and production‑grade reliability fixes. This is a hands‑on development role requiring deep kernel‑space debugging, concurrency management, and hardware‑software co‑design.

What You Will Do

• Develop and maintain Linux kernel camera and ISP drivers utilizing V4L2, the Media Controller framework, and videobuf2 (vb2).
• Integrate and debug MIPI CSI-2 sensors and image pipelines to ensure optimal routing for preview, video, and Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL) paths.
• Implement and maintain robust firmware interfaces, managing command/response queues, interrupt processing, and work‑thread synchronization.
• Manage the buffer lifecycle using MMAP, DMA‑BUF import/export, zero‑copy mechanisms, and fence signaling to minimize latency.
• Drive power management initiatives, including suspend/resume, runtime PM, and clock/power sequencing robustness for camera hardware subsystems.
• Diagnose and resolve complex kernel‑space issues such as race conditions, memory leaks, deadlocks, and frame pipeline regressions.
• Build debug and observability tooling using debugfs, sysfs, ftrace tracepoints, custom counters, and system health metrics.
• Maintain high code quality through rigorous code reviews and technical documentation while collaborating closely with chipset vendors/silicon partners, camera sensor manufacturers, and user‑space camera framework teams.

Skills and Requirements

• 10+ years of embedded systems experience, with a minimum of 5 years dedicated to Linux kernel driver development.
• Expert‑level C programming in kernel space, including memory management, locking primitives (mutexes, spinlocks, RCU), workqueues, and interrupt handling.
• Production‑level experience with the Linux media stack (V4L2 ioctls, Media Controller entities, and videobuf2).
• Hands‑on experience with MIPI CSI‑2 sensor and ISP bring‑up.
• Strong knowledge of DMA‑BUF, scatter‑gather mapping, cache coherency, and kernel debugging tools (JTAG, GDB, ftrace, lockdep).
• Solid understanding of Linux power management (runtime PM and suspend/resume).

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that believes everyone matters. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment regardless of their race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic factors, age, disability, protected veteran status, military or uniformed service member status, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to [e-mail].