Software Engineer - Linux Kernel & Virtualization; Remote in EMEA
About CENSUS
CENSUS LABS is a cybersecurity engineering powerhouse specializing in securing products and organizations. Our identity is rooted in professionalism, engineering excellence, a scientific mindset, and hacking demeanor. We are research-driven, enabling us to deliver a diverse range of professional services.
CENSUS is trusted to conduct high-impact product security engagements, helping our clients secure their solutions from design to deployment, using realistic and risk-informed approaches. Our expertise spans end-to-end systems, including Secure Communications, IoT, Medical Devices, Mobile, and Vehicle Computing platforms.
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About the JobCENSUS’ bespoke cybersecurity services are powered by a multidisciplinary team of Security Engineers, Consultants, and Researchers who go far beyond traditional security assessments. Guided by our Engineering Managers, our teams deliver deep technical evaluations of complex systems and drive measurable, engineering-grade improvements for clients.
We are seeking a Systems Software Engineer with strong expertise in Linux kernel development, secure virtualization, trusted execution, and hardware bring‑up across ARM and platforms.
In this role, you will architect and implement the secure virtualization layer of a custom Linux-based platform, working at the intersection of kernel internals, hypervisor technologies, and hardware-backed security. You will design features, optimize performance, enforce isolation guarantees, and harden the virtualization stack for mission‑critical applications.
Key Responsibilities Architecture & Design- Design virtualization, partitioning, and isolation mechanisms tailored to underlying CPU and SoC capabilities (e.g., ARM Virtualization Extensions, Intel VT‑x, IOMMU/SMMU, hardware security modules).
- Define robust security policies for inter‑VM communication, device passthrough, and memory isolation to maintain strong trust boundaries.
- Implement kernel-level, KVM-level, and VMM-level components supporting secure inter‑VM messaging, memory partitioning, vCPU isolation, I/O protection, and device reassignment.
- Develop security-centric features that deliver low-latency performance in resource-constrained or embedded contexts.
- Integrate virtualization features into build and CI pipelines, bootloaders (U‑Boot, GRUB), and platform initialization sequences.
- Implement secure VM bootstrapping and maintain alignment with upstream kernel developments for long-term maintainability.
- Harden kernel configurations and hypervisor boundaries against cross‑VM exploits, side-channel attacks, and isolation failures.
- Perform regression testing, vulnerability assessments, and issue triage across multi-architecture builds.
- Adapt virtualization stacks across ARM and architectures and prototype new micro visor/KVM hybrids for specialized use cases.
- Evaluate alternative virtualization technologies (e.g., AMD SEV‑SNP/VMPL, Intel TDX, Trust Zone-based micro visors) and provide data-driven recommendations.
- Diagnose and debug core Linux subsystems, improve boot performance, reinforce real-time capabilities, and optimize memory usage for embedded platforms.
- Mentor junior engineers and collaborate with globally distributed teams on kernel and hypervisor development best practices.
- MSc or BSc in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
- 8+ years of embedded Linux or systems-level development, with significant hands‑on experience in Linux kernel programming.
- Demonstrated experience building or securing virtualization systems using KVM or similar hypervisors in production.
- Excellent spoken/written English and strong communication skills.
- Strong understanding of device trees, platform initialization, power management frameworks, netfilter/virtio networking, and real‑time patches ().
- Experience tuning file systems and storage for embedded environments (ext4,…
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