Staff Software Engineer: Kernel & Hypervisor Performance

Google; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus target

Benefits

Job summary

Google’s Architecture, Analysis, Automation, and Accelerators team is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to guide chip-system co-design for upcoming proprietary chips and hyperscale data centers.

You will investigate low-level OS components and hypervisors, reduce virtualization latency across x86 and Arm platforms, and build direct-hardware testing frameworks to address throughput constraints.

This senior role offers significant impact, equity, and a strong bonus package.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8 years of experience in software development and system programming.
• Experience with Linux kernel internals, kernel virtualization, or hypervisor development.
• Experience in performance analysis, debugging, and system optimization on server architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead hardware‑system co‑design for next‑generation custom silicon and SoCs, translating low‑level software performance insights into architectural requirements for future processor and server platforms.
• Optimize Linux kernel internals and hypervisors to systematically identify and eliminate virtualization overhead across both x86 and Arm‑based hyperscale infrastructure.
• Architect bare‑metal microbenchmarks, diagnostic tools, and profiling suites to isolate and resolve complex system bottlenecks spanning CPU cores, caches, and memory hierarchies.
• Drive cross‑functional technical alignment across silicon architecture, platform firmware, operating system, and cloud infrastructure teams to set the performance roadmap for planet‑scale workloads.
• Mentor and technically direct engineers, fostering rigorous systems performance methodologies, experimental benchmarking standards, and architectural best practices.

Skills

Linux kernel internals

Kernel virtualization

Hypervisor development

Performance analysis

System optimization

C/C++ development

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

KVM

Bare-metal benchmarking

Diagnostic tools

Job description

Google’s Architecture, Analysis, Automation, and Accelerators team is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to guide chip-system co-design for upcoming proprietary chips and hyperscale data centers.

You will investigate low-level OS components and hypervisors, reduce virtualization latency across x86 and Arm platforms, and build direct-hardware testing frameworks to address throughput constraints.

This senior role offers significant impact, equity, and a strong bonus package.