Virtualization Engineer

AMD; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

AMD’s Software and Solutions Team seeks an experienced Virtualization Engineer to advance AMD’s virtualization and platform software ecosystem. You will work at the intersection of Linux systems, hypervisors, and platform software, collaborating with AMD engineering teams, enterprise customers, OEMs, and OS partners.

The role offers exposure to performance analysis, debugging, and real-world production systems.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree preferred in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science.
• Deep hands-on experience with VMware VCF, vSphere/ESX, NSX and other products.
• Strong debugging skills in VMware including system/hypervisor level.
• Proficiency in C, Python, and scripting for systems work, debugging, tooling, and automation.

Responsibilities

• Drive VMware enablement for AMD platforms and GPUs in VMware VCF environments.
• Partner with platform/firmware teams to support hardware bring-up and triage firmware/BIOS related issues.
• Analyze, debug, and resolve kernel/system-level issues observed on VMware ESXi.
• Validate software features for platform in VMware deployments across hypervisor-facing functionality.
• Deploy, debug, validate and optimize VMware’s solution stack on AMD products.
• Perform performance analysis, tuning, and optimization for VMware workloads on AMD platforms.

Skills

VMware VCF

vSphere/ESX

NSX

C programming

Python scripting

System debugging

Performance analysis

Automation

Enterprise engagement

Leadership (senior IC)

Education

Master’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science

Tools

Python

Shell scripting

VMware tooling

Job description

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER. ADVANCE THE WORLD. At AMD, we believe technology has the power to solve the world’s most important challenges. From advancing healthcare and scientific discovery to powering AI and the technologies people rely on every day, innovation at AMD is shaping the future.

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER. ADVANCE THE WORLD. At AMD, we believe technology has the power to solve the world’s most important challenges. From advancing healthcare and scientific discovery to powering AI and the technologies people rely on every day, innovation at AMD is shaping the future. Whether you’re designing next-gen processors, enabling AI breakthroughs, or bringing leading edge products to market, every role at AMD contributes to something bigger — technology that moves the world forward. Join us and, together, we’ll advance your career.

The Role

AMD’s Software and Solutions Team is seeking an experienced Virtualization Engineer to help advance AMD’s virtualization and platform software ecosystem. This role sits at the intersection of Linux systems, hypervisors, and low-level platform software, supporting both day-to-day technical execution and longer-term architectural direction. You will work hands-on in complex virtualization environments while collaborating closely with internal AMD engineering teams, enterprise customers, OEMs, and OS partners. The work spans performance analysis, automation, debugging, and development, offering exposure to real-world production systems and deep system-level challenges. This is a highly technical, fast-paced environment where curiosity, ownership, and technical depth are valued, and where senior engineers have meaningful influence on platform direction and customer outcomes.

The Person

You are a self-driven, highly technical virtualization engineer who enjoys solving complex system-level problems and diving deep into how platforms behave under real workloads. You are organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable prioritizing across multiple parallel efforts in a fast-moving environment. You communicate clearly with both technical peers and senior stakeholders, and you’re comfortable navigating unfamiliar codebases to build understanding and resolve issues. You naturally mentor others, offer architectural insight, and influence decisions through expertise and thoughtful technical guidance rather than formal authority. You enjoy working cross-functionally and engaging directly with customers and partners to drive solutions from problem definition through resolution.

Key Responsibilities

• VMware enablement & ecosystem readiness: Drive enablement for AMD platforms and GPUs in VMware VCF environments, including readiness activities that unblock internal validation and partner/customer adoption.
• Hardware bring-up support with FW/OS dependency awareness: Partner with platform/firmware teams to support hardware bring-up and triage issues where behavior depends on firmware/BIOS settings and OS/hypervisor interactions.
• ESXi debugging & root-cause: Analyze, debug, and resolve complex issues observed on VMware ESXi (kernel/system-level), driving end‑to‑end root cause across platform software layers.
• Platform software feature enabling: validate software features for a platform in VMware deployments, working across hypervisor‑facing functionality, platform integration, and system‑level behavior under real workloads.
• Deploy, debug, validate and optimize VMware’s solution stack on AMD products.
• Performance engineering: Perform performance analysis, tuning, and optimization for VMware workloads on AMD platforms; identify bottlenecks and deliver actionable fixes or mitigations.
• Publish tunings, performance numbers and best practices in Tuning Guides, whitepapers, and other external facing collateral.
• Automation & scripting: Build and maintain automation (Python, scripting, and frameworks) to improve validation coverage, debug efficiency, performance triage, and platform reliability in VMware environments.
• Partner/customer engagement: Work directly with enterprise customers, OEMs, and OS/virtualization partners to evangelize AMD CPU and GPU products, drive POCs in pre‑sales engagements, triage escalations, drive root cause, and deliver robust solutions with high-quality communication and follow‑through.
• Technical leadership: Collaborate with, mentor engineers across global AMD teams and help shape technical direction as a senior individual contributor.

Preferred Experience

• Deep hands‑on experience with VMware VCF, vSphere/ESX, NSX and other products.
• Strong debugging skills in VMware including at the system/hypervisor level.
• Solid knowledge of x86_64 architecture and system‑level performance concepts.
• Proficiency in C, Python and scripting for systems work, debugging, tooling, and automation.
• Experience working directly with enterprise customers, OEMs, and OS partners to drive virtualization solutions and platform enablement.
• Experience building or maintaining automation frameworks for system software validation and performance/regression workflows.
• Familiarity with virtualization software across the industry (e.g., Nutanix AHV, KVM-based stacks) in addition to VMware VCF.
• Experience leading distributed engineering teams across time zones in an agile development environment

Academic Credentials

• Master’s degree preferred in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science

Location: Santa Clara, CA or Austin, TX

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Benefits offered are described: AMD benefits at a glance.

AMD does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. AMD and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity, inclusive employers and will consider all applicants without regard to age, ancestry, color, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, race, religion, political and/or third‑party affiliation, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process.

AMD may use Artificial Intelligence to help screen, assess or select applicants for this position. AMD’s “Responsible AI Policy” is available here.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.