Senior Linux Systems Engineer

Orange Barrel Media, LLC; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Orange Barrel Media, LLC is seeking an experienced OS internals engineer to own the Linux platform across a fleet of devices. You will manage kernel, boot, and image life cycles, deploy updates, and maintain the display-server stack on embedded and server-class hardware.

You will ensure application stability under real-world load, tune OS/app boundaries, and drive security hardening and vulnerability patching. Leadership and mentoring of engineers are core to the role.

Qualifications

• 8+ years running production Linux systems with depth in kernel, boot, init, storage and networking internals.
• Experience deploying Linux at fleet scale on Ubuntu Core: snap, confinement, channels/tracks, transactional updates, rollback, fleet management tools.
• Track record keeping production apps stable and fast on Linux; profiling and debugging.
• Strong security background with patching without breaking services.
• Hands-on experience with display servers and GPU stacks beyond desktop usage.
• Ability to make justified tradeoffs and migrations; mentoring engineers.
• Familiarity with scripting (Bash, Python) and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own the Linux platform end-to-end: kernel and base snap versions, patch cadence, image management, life-cycle planning.
• Run deployment pipelines to push OS, drivers, apps safely across many devices with canaries and rollouts.
• Maintain display-server layers (Ubuntu Frame, Mir, Wayland, X11, GPU drivers) on embedded and server-class hardware.
• Ensure apps on the platform are stable under real-world load; manage resources and dependencies.
• Profile and tune OS/app boundaries; set health baselines and alerting; perform root-cause analysis.
• Own OS security posture: hardening baselines, access control, secure boot, encryption; manage vulnerability patches.
• Mentor engineers, set priorities across OS, fleet, app and cloud reliability; document runbooks and tooling.
• Escalation point for issues below the application code.

Skills

Linux internals

Kernel development

Boot/init

Ubuntu Core

Snap packaging

Confinement

Systemd

Bash scripting

Python scripting

Observability tooling

Leadership/Mentoring

Tools

Landscape

Ubuntu Core images

snap packaging tooling

Job description

About this position

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Orange Barrel Media (OBM) creates and operates iconic urban media displays that advertisers ask for by name in top U.S. markets. Since our founding in 2004, OBM has pioneered a community-oriented model of outdoor media development and is nationally recognized by cities and real estate owners alike seeking to implement premier media programs that add to the character of urban places. In the advertising community, OBM is widely recognized as the owner of the highest impact and most memorable advertising locations in the cities where it operates.

The OBM team is also a leader in smart city infrastructure, launching the Interactive Kiosk Experience (IKE) platform in concert with cities across the U.S. through the company IKE Smart City. IKE is a best-in-class public engagement platform that helps cities communicate with the public, enliven the pedestrian experience, and tell the story of their city. The core pillars of the IKE platform are public benefit and social equity, values that we seek to maximize in every IKE market to achieve city objectives and exceed community expectations.

We are a place where people are inspired to achieve success, genuinely like each other, and have endless opportunities to grow.

We run an established Ubuntu Core-based platform and display-server estate deployed across a large fleet of devices, along with the applications that run on it. We’re looking for an experienced OS internals engineer to own the platform: keep it secure, stable, and performant, evolve it where it makes sense, and make sure changes reach every unit reliably.

You’ll inherit systems that work and have room to improve them, but we value incremental, well-reasoned change over rewrites. You’ll lead our infrastructure function and provide technical direction for the team.

What You’ll Do

Platform and fleet

• Own the Linux platform end to end: kernel and base snap versions, patching cadence, image management, end-of-life planning
• Run deployment and update pipelines that push OS, driver, application, and configuration changes safely across a large number of units: channels and tracks, staged rollouts, canaries, health checks, rollback
• Maintain the display-server layer (Ubuntu Frame/Mir, Wayland, X11, GPU drivers, remote display) on embedded and server-class hardware

Application stability and performance

• Ensure the applications running on the platform are stable under real-world load: resource limits, service supervision via snapd and systemd, restart behavior, dependency management
• Profile and tune at the OS/application boundary: CPU scheduling, memory pressure, I/O, GPU utilization, network throughput
• Define health and performance baselines, set up alerting on regressions, and lead root-cause analysis when things degrade

Security

• Own the OS security posture: hardening baselines, access control, privilege separation, secure boot, disk encryption
• Use snap confinement (AppArmor, seccomp, interfaces) as the primary isolation boundary for applications
• Run vulnerability management: CVE monitoring and triage, patch prioritization, and coordinated rollout across the fleet
• Reduce attack surface at the application layer: least privilege, dependency and supply‑chain hygiene
• Maintain audit logging and integrity checks; support incident response and any compliance requirements

Leadership

• Identify where the platform should evolve and make the case with clear tradeoffs and migration paths
• Keep documentation, runbooks, and fleet tooling accurate and usable by others
• Manage and mentor engineers on the team; set priorities across OS, fleet, application, and cloud reliability work
• Be the escalation point for anything below the application code itself

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years running production Linux systems, with real depth in kernel, boot, init, storage, and networking internals
• Experience deploying and updating Linux at fleet scale, ideally on Ubuntu Core: snap packaging and confinement, channel and track management, transactional updates and rollback, and a fleet management tool (Landscape or similar)
• Track record of keeping production applications stable and fast on Linux, including profiling and performance debugging
• Strong security background: you read advisories, understand attack surface, and patch without breaking things
• Hands‑on experience with display servers and GPU stacks beyond the desktop use case
• Judgment about when to change something and when to leave it alone
• Comfortable with scripting (Bash, Python) and observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, or similar)
• Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers

Nice to Have

• Experience with IoT or edge device fleets: constrained hardware, intermittent connectivity, remote provisioning and recovery
• Experience building and publishing snap packages, including confinement design and interface declarations
• Experience building custom Ubuntu Core images, gadget and kernel snaps, or brand stores
• Familiarity with other immutable OS models (ostree, NixOS)
• Enough cloud familiarity (AWS, GCP, or similar) to partner well with cloud-focused engineers
• Compliance exposure (SOC 2, ISO 27001, CIS benchmarks)