Senior/Staff Linux Kernel Engineer (Avionics Software)
Zipline
San Francisco, United States Posted October 22, 2026
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Salary Range
$160,000 - $250,000
Job Description
Join Zipline, a pioneering company in the field of drone delivery. As a Senior/Staff Linux Kernel Engineer, you will be responsible for the stability and performance of the Linux kernel, which is the foundation of our flight computers. You will work closely with various teams, diagnose system-level issues, and help define what "ready to ship" means. This is a unique opportunity to make a significant impact in the world of logistics and healthcare.
- Assumer la responsabilité de la stabilité et des performances du noyau Linux, qui est la base de nos ordinateurs de vol.
- Développer, déboguer et maintenir les pilotes du noyau Linux et les sous-systèmes connexes, et les posséder de bout en bout.
- Collaborer étroitement avec les équipes matérielles, de microprogrammes, de plates-formes, de mise en réseau et de logiciels de vol, depuis le premier démarrage d'une nouvelle carte jusqu'au diagnostic des pannes rares.
- Experience writing design docs, leading technical efforts across teams, and mentoring other engineers
- Clear written and verbal communication, including explaining a subtle kernel problem to people who don't work in the kernel
- A record of debugging on real hardware and reading datasheets or interface specs to find root causes
- Fluency with kernel debugging and measurement tools such as ftrace, perf, dynamic debug, and crash analysis, and the habit of validating fixes with data
- 7+ years of professional Linux kernel work, including ownership of at least one driver, subsystem, or hardware bring-up from start to finish
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Strong C and deep familiarity with kernel internals: scheduling, interrupts, concurrency, memory management, DMA, MMIO, and the Linux device model
- Comfort with the upstream patch workflow
- PCIe, Ethernet/NIC drivers, DMA, IOMMU, MSI/MSI-X, or Linux networking
- Embedded Linux, ARM64, device tree, or board bring-up
- EBPF, XDP, or high-performance networking
- Real-time systems, PREEMPT_RT, or latency analysis
- Kernel CI, stress testing, or performance regression testing
- Upstream kernel contributions, or maintaining a product kernel
- Hardware debugging tools, firmware, bootloaders, or test automation scripting
Required Skills
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