Staff Software Engineer

DigitalOcean•Seattle, WA

22h•$191,200 - $239,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Staff Engineer who is passionate about the Linux kernel. As a Staff Engineer at DigitalOcean, you will work as a high-level technical leader responsible for designing, optimizing, and maintaining Linux kernels for our compute and GPU fleets. You will optimize and enhance core system performance, resiliency, and security, ensuring our products consistently exceed customer expectations. You will bridge hardware and software, driving system-level architecture, debugging performance bottlenecks, and mentoring senior engineers.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or Computer/Electrical Engineering or equivalent work experience
Experience maintaining Linux kernels for large-scale cloud infrastructure, with a deep understanding of operating system internals
Broad knowledge of the Linux kernel and kernel subsystems
Demonstrated experience with kernel patching and debugging
Debugging skills with Linux kernel and kernel drivers
Expertise in C/C++ programming and one or more scripting languages
Familiarity with compiler toolchains, build environments
Experience with Linux virtualization using KVM, QEMU
General understanding of Linux kernel security mechanisms and common security concepts
Familiarity with x86_64 and/or ARM architectures
Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems at scale
Excellent cross-team collaboration and communication skills
Professional-level written and spoken English with strong presentation abilities

Nice To Haves

Experience contributing patches to the upstream Linux kernel community is highly preferred

Responsibilities

Optimize kernels for performance and resiliency across the DigitalOcean fleet for storage, networking, and virtualization
Drive cross-functional engineering initiatives and influence hardware roadmaps without direct authority
Define low-level software architecture
Tune kernels for low latency, high throughput, and power efficiency
Diagnose and resolve issues in the kernel
Deliver critical kernel fixes and security mitigations with kernel live patches
Investigate and resolve virtual machine downtime and kernel issues in our production environment
Implement monitoring and alerting of key metrics to drive resiliency of compute infrastructure
Improve tooling and automation for testing and deployment of Linux kernels
Lead initiatives to enhance shared infrastructure, balancing performance optimization with rigorous security standards
Work cross-functionally to harness new performance capabilities from evolving hardware architectures
Participate in on-call rotations as needed to support system reliability
Work with Linux kernel community to push changes upstream