Principal Software Engineer, Linux Kernel - Isovalent

Isovalent, now part of Cisco, is the company founded by the creators of Cilium and eBPF. Cisco Isovalent builds open-source software and enterprise solutions solving networking, security, and observability needs for modern cloud native infrastructure. The flagship technology, Cilium, is the choice of numerous, industry-leading, global organizations.

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Cisco Isovalent is seeking a skilled and experienced Software Engineer with long-term experience and upstream reputation in the Linux kernel community to develop forward looking features and functionality related to BPF, networking and/or security in the Linux kernel as well as bringing the latter into Cilium and/or Tetragon. You will work with a highly collaborative and skilled team to build solutions that advance the next generation of networking and security in Kubernetes and cloud native environments.

• Lead design and development of new Linux kernel functionality in the areas of BPF, the networking stack and/or the security subsystem and bring the new functionality into Cilium/Tetragon.
• Collaborate in a small technical team working on forward-looking features, but also actively collaborate in the upstream Linux kernel community.
• Engage with the team across engineering, product, and customers to align on future technical direction with business needs.
• Possibility to speak at technical conferences to present and discuss your work (e.g., Kube Con, Linux Plumbers, LSF/MM/BPF).
• Contribute to and uphold engineering best practices, code quality, and operational excellence.

• Bachelors Computer Science degree, or related fields
• 2+ years of upstream Linux kernel track record
• 5+ years of experience in C
• A public track record of open-source code commits is a must

• Expert knowledge about Linux systems design, performance, security and/or networking, Linux kernel
• 5+ years of upstream Linux kernel track record
• 5+ years of experience in C, BPF as well as Go
• Desire to write high quality and efficient code
• Highly self-driven working individual
• Experience designing and implementing APIs
• Experience from working with production systems at scale, networking background is always a plus
• Experience with Kubernetes, Cloud Native workloads and/or distributed systems

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