Operating Systems Engineer, Linux Kernel | Consumer Devices

The role

You will design, develop, and maintain Linux kernel capabilities for consumer devices. You will own features across the stack, from kernel subsystems to userspace services and interfaces.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and maintain Linux kernel subsystem changes.
• Build interfaces and supporting components across kernel and userspace boundaries.
• Debug complex system behavior using tracing, profiling, and diagnostic tools.
• Develop tests and workloads to validate performance, power, and reliability.
• Partner with hardware, firmware, platform, and application engineers.
• Prepare reviewable patches and contribute fixes and improvements upstream.

Required qualifications

• Substantial hands-on experience designing, developing, and debugging one or more Linux kernel subsystems, such as memory management, storage, networking, high-speed peripherals, power management, sche
• Proficiency in C for kernel and low-level systems development.
• Strong understanding of kernel concurrency, synchronization, memory ownership, and resource lifetimes.
• Experience delivering systems capabilities across kernel and userspace, including designing interfaces and diagnosing problems that cross that boundary.
• Understanding of Linux kernel development principles and practices.

Nice to have

• Proficient in Rust for systems programming, with experience developing Linux kernel code in Rust alongside C.
• Participate in the Linux community through patches, code review, testing, bug reports, technical discussions, or collaboration with subsystem maintainers.
• Take ownership of complete solutions and follow problems across system boundaries.
• Make careful tradeoffs among functionality, security, performance, power, and maintainability, and explain your decisions with evidence.
• Work constructively through technical review and communicate clearly with teammates across disciplines.

Before you apply

• Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law.

About the company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The Consumer Devices team builds products that bring powerful AI into people's everyday lives.