Senior Linux Systems Engineer

Socket.dev; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev is seeking an experienced OS internals engineer to own the Ubuntu Core-based platform, ensuring security, stability, and performance across a large fleet. You will lead the infrastructure function, providing technical direction and driving incremental improvements across kernel, image management, and fleet tooling.

You will oversee deployment pipelines, maintain the display-server stack, and ensure applications stay stable under real-world load.

Qualifications

• 8+ years running production Linux systems with depth in kernel, boot, init, storage, networking internals.
• Experience deploying and updating Linux at fleet scale on Ubuntu Core: snap packaging, confinement, channels/tracks, transactional updates, fleet management.
• Track record of keeping production applications stable and fast on Linux, including profiling and performance debugging.
• Strong security background: reading advisories, understanding attack surface, patching without breaking things.
• Hands-on experience with display servers and GPU stacks beyond desktop use case.

Responsibilities

• Own the Linux platform end to end: kernel/base snaps, patch cadence, image management, end-of-life planning.
• Run deployment and update pipelines that push OS, driver, apps, and configuration changes across a large number of units with canaries and rollouts.
• Maintain the display-server layer (Ubuntu Frame/Mir, Wayland, X11, GPU drivers) on embedded and server hardware.
• Ensure applications are stable under real-world load: resources limits, service supervision, restart behavior, dependency management.
• Define health/performance baselines, set up alerting for regressions, and lead root-cause analysis when issues arise.
• Own OS security posture: hardening baselines, access control, secure boot, disk encryption, AppArmor/seccomp.
• Lead and mentor engineers; set priorities across OS, fleet, application, and cloud reliability work.
• Be the escalation point for anything below the application code itself.

Skills

Linux internals

Kernel/Boot/Init

Scripting Bash/Python

Observability tooling

Mentoring/leadership

Written communication

Tools

snap packaging

Landscape

Prometheus

Grafana

systemd

Job description

About the role

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
• Clear written communication

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)
• Kernel module or driver debugging experience
• Enough cloud familiarity (AWS, GCP, or similar) to partner well with cloud-focused engineers
• Compliance exposure (SOC 2, ISO 27001, CIS benchmarks)