Senior Staff Linux Kernel Engineer

Crusoe; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Equity

Comprehensive benefits

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Crusoe is seeking a senior systems engineer to lead its Linux kernel team in San Francisco. You will define the roadmap, architect critical projects, and deliver kernel and device driver development at scale for AI workloads.

The role combines high-level design with hands-on coding and mentoring an engineering team. You will work to optimize memory management, scheduling, and I/O subsystems for accelerator hardware, while collaborating with product and hardware teams to drive production-ready

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in systems software engineering
• At least 3 years in a technical leadership role managing low-level systems or infrastructure teams
• Expert-level knowledge of Linux kernel internals and virtualization technologies
• Strong C programming skills and kernel development workflow

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction for Crusoe's Linux kernel team, owning the roadmap
• Architect and implement kernel and driver development for production-ready infrastructure
• Lead debugging, security analysis, and backporting for kernel CVEs
• Mentor and grow a high-performing systems team across hardware and software

Skills

Linux kernel internals

Virtualization technologies

C programming

Go, Rust, or Python

CI/CD tooling

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.

We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.

We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.

If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.

About the Role:

You will set the technical direction for Crusoe's Linux kernel team, owning the roadmap and architecting critical development projects. This role requires a balance of high-level architectural design and hands-on kernel coding. You will tackle the most complex kernel problems while mentoring and growing the engineers around you to deliver production-ready infrastructure at scale.

What You'll Be Working On:

• Virtualization Architecture: Design and implement advanced virtualization technologies tailored for GPU-accelerated AI and HPC workloads. You will optimize the stack for low latency and high scalability across hypervisors and device emulation.

• Linux Kernel & Driver Development: Develop and maintain upstream-first kernel code and device drivers. You will optimize memory management, scheduling, and I/O subsystems proactively to support hardware accelerators and high-throughput compute use cases.

• Debugging & Security: Perform deep-dive root-cause analysis of issues across the OS and hardware layers. You will lead the triage and backporting for kernel CVEs while building automated tooling for vulnerability analysis.

• Leadership: Lead and grow a high-performing systems team. You will drive engineering excellence through technical mentorship, comprehensive code reviews, and alignment with product and hardware teams.

What You'll Bring to the Team:

• 10+ years of experience in systems software engineering with at least 3 years in a technical leadership role managing low-level systems or infrastructure teams.

• Expert-level knowledge of Linux kernel internals (memory management, scheduler, I/O) and virtualization technologies (KVM, Xen, or QEMU).

• Strong C programming skills and fluency with the kernel development workflow, including patch submission and debugging security vulnerabilities.

• Proficiency in modern systems programming (Go, Rust, or Python) and familiarity with CI/CD and deployment automation tooling.

Bonus Points

• Familiarity with accelerators (GPUs, TPUs) and related technologies like CUDA or ROCm.

• Experience with high-performance networking (e.g., InfiniBand, RoCE) and tuning virtualization stacks for HPC workloads.

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and equity packages

• Restricted Stock Units

• Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs

• Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance

• Employer contributions to HSA account

• Paid parental leave

• Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability

• Professional development & tuition reimbursement

• Mental health & wellness support

• Commuter benefits (parking & transit)

• Cell phone stipend

• 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary

• Volunteer time off

• Global travel insurance & emergency assistance

• Daily meals allowance

• Additional perks & programs specific to location

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $250,000 -$300,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant's knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.