Linux Kernel Engineer
Apple
Software Engineering
Seattle, WA, USA
USD 139,500-258,100 / year + Equity
Posted on Dec 16, 2025
At Apple, we craft experiences that have transformed entire industries. The diversity of our people and ideas fuels innovation in everything we do. Imagine what you could build here. Join our Linux Kernel Engineering team and play a central role in the reliability, performance, and evolution of Apple’s platforms. As a Linux Kernel Engineer, you will own the kernel lifecycle end to end, from CI infrastructure and automated validation to driver enablement, debugging, and production-quality releases. You will partner closely with platform, infrastructure, and SRE teams to ensure every kernel we ship is stable, observable, and ready for real world workloads at scale.
In this role, you will design, build, and operate CI and validation pipelines that compile, test, and release Linux kernels across multiple hardware platforms and Linux distributions. You will lead triage of kernel regressions, investigate crashes and performance issues, drive fixes to resolution, and qualify new hardware at the kernel layer. You will collaborate with engineers across Apple to port, maintain, and upstream device drivers, shepherd kernel changes into production, and continuously raise the bar on kernel quality, automation, and release discipline. Your work will have direct impact on the stability, performance, and debuggability of systems that power critical Apple services. If you enjoy deep kernel debugging, building robust CI systems, and owning kernel releases from development through production, we would like to hear from you.
- Bachelor of Computer Science or equivalent skills and work experience.
- At least 5+ years experience developing or maintaining the Linux kernel or low-level system software (e.g., kernel modules, device drivers, or core OS components).
- Proven ability to debug kernel level issues (panics, hangs, performance regressions) using tools such as perf, ftrace, bpftrace, crash, gdb, or similar.
- Deep understanding of kernel tuning for stability and performance across many subsystem domains.
- Hands-on experience developing CI/CD systems integrating operating system components and managing kernel releases.
- Strong programming skills in C, plus proficiency in at least one of Rust, Go, Python, or Bash.
- Solid understanding of operating system fundamentals: processes, memory management, filesystems, networking, scheduling, interrupts, and hardware/driver interactions.
- Experience working in a RHEL based Linux environment, including RPM packaging and the RHEL kernel back port and release process.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills; comfortable working with cross-functional teams (SRE, platform, hardware, security).
- Proven track record of upstream contributions to the Linux kernel project or similar upstreams.
Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant.