Senior Principal Linux Kernel Engineer

Oracle; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 306,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Short/long term disability

Life insurance and AD&D

401(k) match

Paid time off and holidays

Stock Purchase Plan

Accessibility accommodation

Job summary

Oracle's Cloud Linux team is seeking experienced Linux Kernel Developers to advance the Linux operating system for large-scale cloud environments. You will contribute to kernel subsystems across networking, storage, memory management, security, and live patching technologies.

The role emphasizes C programming, kernel-level debugging, and open-source collaboration, with opportunities to work on architecture enablement and performance optimization for cloud workloads.

Qualifications

• Strong background in operating systems development.
• Several years of hands-on Unix/Linux kernel development experience preferred.
• Proficiency in C programming and kernel-level debugging.
• Expertise in one or more Linux kernel subsystems, including networking, storage, memory management, security, or processor architecture.
• Experience with open-source development practices and upstream kernel contributions is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with Python and Bash scripting for development and automation tasks.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize kernel features across areas such as networking, storage, security, and memory management.
• Collaborate with hardware teams on processor bring-up and architecture enablement.
• Contribute to upstream Linux kernel and drive enhancements for cloud-scale deployments.
• Improve container workload performance and large-page management.
• Participate in security tooling and kernel signing/encryption frameworks.

Skills

OS development

Linux kernel development

C programming

Kernel subsystems

Open-source contributions

Python scripting

Bash scripting

Tools

Python

Bash

Job description

Job Description

The Oracle Cloud Linux team is seeking experienced Linux Kernel Developers to help advance the Linux operating system for large-scale cloud environments. This role involves contributing to Linux kernel and working on innovative projects across multiple kernel subsystems, including networking, storage, security, performance optimization, virtual memory management, architecture enablement, and live patching technologies.

The Oracle Cloud Linux team is seeking experienced Linux Kernel Developers to help advance the Linux operating system for large-scale cloud environments. This role involves contributing to Linux kernel and working on innovative projects across multiple kernel subsystems, including networking, storage, security, performance optimization, virtual memory management, architecture enablement, and live patching technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize kernel features across areas such as:
• Networking (Ethernet, InfiniBand, OFED, RoCE, DPDK, and related technologies)
• Storage and Filesystems (iSCSI, Fibre Channel, NFS, ZFS, Btrfs, block layer, and filesystem layer)
• Virtual Memory Management and Performance Optimization, including large page management and container workload performance
• Security technologies such as encryption, TPM integration, signed kernels/modules, Secure Boot, and bootloader security
• Contribute to the upstream Linux kernel and drive enhancements for cloud-scale deployments.
• Collaborate closely with hardware design teams on processor bring-up and architecture enablement initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Strong background in operating systems development.
• Several years of hands-on Unix/Linux kernel development experience preferred.
• Proficiency in C programming and kernel-level debugging.
• Expertise in one or more Linux kernel subsystems, including networking, storage, memory management, security, or processor architecture.
• Experience with open-source development practices and upstream kernel contributions is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with Python and Bash scripting for development and automation tasks.

Preferred Experience

• High-performance networking technologies such as RoCE, advanced Ethernet networking.
• Filesystem and storage technologies including XFS, ZFS, NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and Linux block layer development.
• Virtual memory management, performance tuning, and container optimization.
• Security technologies including TPM, Secure Boot, kernel signing, and encryption frameworks.
• Live patching technologies and kernel maintenance.

Qualifications

Disclaimer: Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.

Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only

US: Hiring Range in USD from: $135,200 - $306,400 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.

Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.

Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.

Benefits

Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short term disability and long term disability
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
• Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance

The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.

Career Level - IC5

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