Senior Linux Distribution Engineer — Software Supply Chain Security

RapidFort, Inc.

10d•$150,000 - $200,000

About The Position

We are looking for a deeply technical Linux Distribution Engineer to build, maintain, and secure Linux package ecosystems and hardened container images across modern cloud-native platforms. This role sits at the intersection of Linux distributions, package management, and software supply chain security. You will own the lifecycle of identifying vulnerabilities, validating fixes, rebuilding or backporting packages across distribution branches, maintaining trusted package repositories, and ensuring secure software delivery at scale. You will work across multiple Linux distribution ecosystems to build, maintain, secure, and deliver production-ready packages and container images tailored to customer environments. The role requires deep expertise in Linux packaging, dependency management, repository management, compatibility validation, and automated software delivery at scale. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on Linux internals, package systems, dependency management, build pipelines, repository management, and automation — not simply vulnerability scanning or policy compliance. You will collaborate closely with platform engineering, infrastructure, DevOps, release engineering, and security teams to improve how software is built, validated, secured, and distributed across containerized environments.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in Linux systems engineering, Linux distribution engineering, platform engineering, DevSecOps, release engineering, or SRE.
Deep expertise in Linux distributions and package ecosystems.
Strong experience with Linux package build systems and tooling including rpmbuild, dpkg-buildpackage, APKBUILD/abuild, and associated repository and release tooling.
Strong hands-on experience with Linux package managers including dpkg/apt, rpm/yum/dnf, apk, and associated repository tooling.
Proven experience rebuilding, patching, backporting, maintaining, or publishing Linux packages across distribution versions.
Strong understanding of package repositories, dependency resolution, ABI compatibility, package signing, and release workflows.
Experience identifying and remediating vulnerabilities within Linux packages and containerized environments.
Deep understanding of container internals, Linux, namespaces, and runtime behavior.
Strong scripting or programming skills in Bash, C/C++, Python, Go, and other languages.
Experience building CI/CD automation for package validation, remediation, release, and repository management workflows.
Familiarity with software supply chain security concepts including SBOMs, provenance, signing, and artifact trust.
Strong troubleshooting skills across Linux systems, package ecosystems, dependency graphs, and build pipelines.

Nice To Haves

Experience maintaining or contributing to Linux distributions or open source package ecosystems.
Experience with package build infrastructure such as mock, Koji, OBS, Launchpad, or similar systems.
Experience building minimal, distroless, or hardened container images.
Familiarity with SBOM tooling and standards.
Familiarity with SLSA, reproducible builds, or software supply chain security frameworks.
Contributions to open source infrastructure, Linux packaging, or container ecosystem projects.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end vulnerability remediation across Linux package ecosystems and container images.
Analyze CVEs affecting OS packages, runtimes, libraries, and transitive dependencies across multiple Linux distributions.
Validate upstream fixes, evaluate patch applicability, and determine appropriate remediation strategies.
Rebuild, backport, patch, curate, sign, and publish packages across multiple Linux distribution branches.
Maintain and manage trusted package repositories across diverse Linux ecosystems.
Resolve complex dependency, compatibility, and ABI issues across distributions and package versions.
Ensure package and image updates do not break customer environments, builds, or runtime compatibility.
Design and scale automated pipelines for package rebuilding, validation, remediation, signing, publishing, and image generation.
Integrate package validation, repository management, and remediation workflows into pipelines.
Generate and maintain SBOMs, package metadata, provenance data, and trusted software artifacts.
Improve image performance, package footprint, startup efficiency, and operational reliability.
Research emerging threats and best practices in Linux distributions, containers, Kubernetes, and software supply chain security.