Senior Linux Kernel Engineer – Embedded Flight Systems

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking an experienced Linux kernel engineer to own hardware bring-up, drivers, and system-level debugging for embedded flight computers. You will define kernel direction and build scalable validation as Zipline scales to millions of deliveries daily.

You will work with hardware, firmware, platform, networking, and flight software teams to ensure safety, performance, and reliability across the kernel stack, with mentorship responsibilities for the team.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional Linux kernel work.
• Strong C and deep familiarity with kernel internals.
• Experience debugging on real hardware and reading datasheets.
• Fluency with kernel debugging and measurement tools.
• Comfort with the upstream patch workflow.
• Experience writing design docs and mentoring engineers.
• Clear written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Diagnose crashes, hangs, races, driver failures, and performance issues across a fleet.
• Drive cross-system investigations to validated resolutions and build tooling.
• Develop, debug, and maintain Linux kernel drivers end-to-end.
• Design for failure and verify behavior on real hardware.
• Bring up new hardware including device tree and firmware interfaces.
• Build diagnostics, benchmarks, and tests to catch regressions.
• Measure latency, throughput, and networking performance.
• Review kernel changes and maintain patch stacks across upgrades.
• Write design docs and drive cross-team decisions.
• Mentor engineers and improve code quality and testing.
• Contribute upstream patches and track regressions.

Skills

Linux kernel experience

C programming

Kernel debugging

Upstream patches

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

ftrace

perf

crash analysis

kernel CI

Job description

Zipline is seeking an experienced Linux kernel engineer to own hardware bring-up, drivers, and system-level debugging for embedded flight computers. You will define kernel direction and build scalable validation as Zipline scales to millions of deliveries daily.

You will work with hardware, firmware, platform, networking, and flight software teams to ensure safety, performance, and reliability across the kernel stack, with mentorship responsibilities for the team.