Operating Systems Engineer, Linux Kernel | Consumer Devices

Details

OpenAI Consumer Devices is building the next generation of products that bring powerful AI into people’s everyday lives. The team works across custom silicon, embedded systems, operating systems, and cloud services to build reliable consumer devices and the platforms behind them.

As an Operating Systems Engineer focused on the Linux kernel, you will design, develop, and maintain kernel capabilities that underpin OpenAI’s consumer devices. You will bring deep expertise in one or more Linux kernel subsystems and carry solutions through the higher-level software stack, including userspace services, libraries, tools, and interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain Linux kernel subsystem changes that support device capabilities and product requirements.
• Own features across the stack by choosing appropriate kernel and userspace boundaries and building the interfaces and supporting components needed for reliable shipped products.
• Use tracing, profiling, instrumentation, and diagnostic tools to resolve correctness, concurrency, performance, power, and reliability issues in development and production.
• Develop tests and representative workloads to demonstrate repeatable performance, power, and reliability gains and detect regressions across kernel and userspace.
• Work with hardware, firmware, platform, and application engineers to turn system requirements into understandable, maintainable solutions.
• Prepare reviewable patches, incorporate feedback, and contribute fixes and improvements upstream where appropriate.
• Maintain product-specific kernel changes responsibly as the kernel evolves.

Requirements

• 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, scheduling, or virtualization.
• 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 across that boundary.
• Understanding of Linux kernel development principles and practices, including maintainable designs, appropriate abstractions, reviewable patches, compatibility awareness, and careful validation to prevent regressions.

Preferred Qualifications

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

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law. OpenAI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.