System Software Engineer

Acceler8 Talent; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Acceler8 Talent in Mountain View, CA is seeking a System Software Engineer to join a small, highly technical team responsible for the software layer that makes custom silicon usable—from Linux kernel drivers to low-level userspace libraries and platform bring-up.

You will own kernel drivers, DMA, memory management, MMIO, interrupts, and device initialization; build and debug pre-silicon verification, and collaborate with hardware and firmware engineers during first-silicon bring-up.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in low-level systems software, kernel development, firmware, or closely related work.
• Experience in both kernel space and userspace.
• Ability to work directly from hardware documentation, register maps, and device specifications.
• Strong understanding of DMA.
• MMIO and interrupt handling.
• IOMMU, virtual memory, and memory hierarchy.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop Linux kernel drivers for PCIe-connected accelerator hardware.
• Own areas including DMA, memory management, interrupts, MMIO, command submission, and device initialization.
• Build low-level userspace libraries and interfaces using ioctl, sysfs, mmap, and direct device access.
• Develop prototype drivers, debug utilities, and bring-up tools for new hardware features.
• Validate software against simulation, emulation, and FPGA-based pre-silicon platforms.
• Work with hardware and firmware engineers during first-silicon bring-up.

Skills

Low-level systems software

Kernel development

Kernel-space & userspace

Hardware bring-up

PCIe

DMA

MMIO

Debugging multi-layer hw/sw

Tools

Linux kernel

PCIe

Rust

Job description

System Software Engineer — Linux Kernel & Device Drivers

Mountain View, CA

We’re partnering with an early-stage AI hardware company building a new generation of high-performance accelerator systems for large-scale AI workloads.

They’re looking for a System Software Engineer to join a small, highly technical team responsible for the software layer that makes custom silicon usable — from Linux kernel drivers and low-level userspace libraries through hardware bring-up, telemetry, and platform integration.

This is a strong fit for someone who enjoys working close to the hardware, can take a hardware specification or register map and start building, and is comfortable debugging problems that cross the boundary between silicon, firmware, kernel, and userspace.

What You’ll Work On

• Design and develop Linux kernel drivers for PCIe-connected accelerator hardware
• Own areas including DMA, memory management, interrupts, MMIO, command submission, and device initialization
• Build low-level userspace libraries and interfaces using ioctl, sysfs, mmap, and direct device access
• Develop prototype drivers, debug utilities, and bring-up tools for new hardware features
• Validate software against simulation, emulation, and FPGA-based pre-silicon platforms
• Work directly with hardware and firmware engineers during first-silicon bring-up
• Debug complex issues spanning RTL, firmware, kernel, PCIe, and userspace
• Profile and optimize PCIe throughput, DMA performance, interrupt latency, and host-side overhead
• Build regression and validation infrastructure for driver and systems-software components
• Expose device health, telemetry, and error information to higher-level platform-management software
• Provide software input into future chip and system architecture decisions
• Contribute across adjacent host-software components as the platform evolves

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in low-level systems software, kernel development, firmware, or closely related work
• Experience working in both kernel space and userspace
• Ability to work directly from hardware documentation, register maps, and device specifications
• Strong understanding of:
• DMA
• MMIO
• interrupts
• IOMMU
• virtual memory
• memory hierarchy
• operating-system internals
• Experience debugging difficult hardware/software interaction issues
• Comfortable working in an early-stage environment where requirements may still be evolving

Particularly Relevant Experience - Experience in one or more of the following would be valuable:

• Accelerator, GPU, NIC, storage-controller, or SoC device drivers
• First-silicon or new-platform bring-up
• Pre-silicon simulation, emulation, or FPGA environments
• SR-IOV, VFIO, dma-buf, or PCIe peer-to-peer
• Linux performance tools such as perf, ftrace, or eBPF
• BMC/OpenBMC or host-to-BMC communication
• I2C, SMBus, or other sideband management interfaces
• Systems programming in Rust

This is a hands-on role with significant ownership and direct exposure to cutting-edge AI silicon from early development through production.

Keywords: Linux Kernel, Device Drivers, Systems Software, Kernel Engineering, PCIe, DMA, MMIO, IOMMU, Linux Drivers, C, C++, Embedded Systems, Low-Level Software, Hardware Software Integration, Silicon Bring-Up, ASIC, SoC, AI Accelerators, GPU, FPGA, Firmware, Computer Architecture, Operating Systems, BMC, OpenBMC, SR-IOV, VFIO, eBPF, Performance Optimization, Pre-Silicon Validation, Hardware Bring-Up