Senior Kernel Support Engineer (remote work)

TuxCare offers a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions for Linux and open-source software designed for enterprise organizations. With TuxCare, companies can automate live vulnerability patching, minimize downtime, ensure security and compliance, and rely on a team with deep expertise in Linux security. The solutions cover the most popular Linux distributions, end-of-life systems, programming languages, and more. Learn more at tuxcare.com.

KernelCare provides automated live patching for Linux kernels without requiring reboots. Our Endless Lifecycle Support products keep end-of-life Linux distributions secure by backporting important security and bug fixes to older software versions used by enterprise customers.

We are looking for a Senior Kernel Support Engineer to join our small, experienced team at KernelCare. An AI agent handles first-line triage, allowing our engineers to focus on complex technical cases that require their expertise. The team also develops and maintains tools and AI-powered agents to automate support processes and improve efficiency.

What you will do

• Analyze crashes, hangs and reboots related to live patching: oops and panic logs, vmcore with the crash tool, KASAN reports. Decide if the live patch caused it or not, and say so to the customer.
• Investigate problems during patching: apply failures, stuck transitions, unknown symbols, freeze conflicts with backup tools.
• Investigate missing patches and new kernel or distro support requests, and work with the patch team to add support.
• Answer deep CVE questions: check the patch sources, not only the docs.
• Find the root cause, give the patch team a clear report, and follow it to the fix.
• Be the named engineer for an enterprise customer during a Sev 1: their hosts are down, you own the case until it is closed.
• Help during big CVE events.
• On-call for Sev 1 with the team (24/7 is a contract obligation; we share it).

Must haves

• Strong knowledge of Linux kernel internals, including memory management (MM), VFS, networking, scheduling, and locking mechanisms.

• Hands-on experience with Linux kernel crash analysis, including the use of debugging tools such as crash, vmcore analysis, and kernel oops decoding.
• Good C programming skills, with the ability to read and analyze Linux kernel code and patches to identify root causes of issues.
• Experience working with vendor security advisories (RHSA, USN, DSA) and kernel changelogs, including Git history.
• Experience handling critical production incidents and technical escalations for enterprise customers, with the ability to communicate complex technical issues and investigation progress clearly.
• Excellent written English communication skills, with the ability to explain technical findings clearly and concisely.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with Linux live patching technologies (kpatch, livepatch, ksplice).
• Experience with virtualization and container technologies, including Proxmox, KVM, OpenVZ, LVE, and cgroups.
• Experience using Python and shell scripting for automation, troubleshooting, and log analysis.
• Familiarity with AI/LLM tools for debugging and technical investigations.
• Experience in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE).

What's in it for you?

• A focus on professional development.
• Interesting and challenging projects.
• Fully remote work with flexible working hours, that allows you to schedule your day and work from any location worldwide.
• Paid 24 days of vacation per year, 10 days of national holidays, and unlimited sick leaves.
• Compensation for private medical insurance.
• Co-working and gym/sports reimbursement.
• Budget for education.
• The opportunity to receive a reward for the most innovative idea that the company can patent.

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