Operating System and Virtualization Engineer

Operating System and Virtualization Engineer

Do you love operating systems implementation, digging into the gritty interface where software meets machine? We are seeking a software engineer to work on our illumos-based host operating system, Helios and our Rust-based VMM, Propolis. These technologies sit at the center of the Oxide technology stack, interfacing directly with a wide range of hardware, embedded software, and third‑party firmware to support the Oxide control plane and its virtual machine instances.

The host OS is holistically designed to begin execution with the processor’s first instruction; it uniquely subsumes and replaces functionality that UEFI and ACPI firmware provide in other architectures. The Rust-based VMM is a de novo implementation based on the bhyve hypervisor.

Work with a helpful and experienced team to design, build, and bring up host system software, in‑kernel virtualization, and the user‑space VMM on current and future Oxide computers.

Read and write code in C (for the operating system writ large), in Rust (for Propolis and for some in‑kernel components), and/or microprocessor assembly. All the code you write will be open source.

Grow and apply your understanding of microprocessors, through deep familiarity with available documentation, interacting directly with real hardware, and producing your own documents where the vendor’s fall short.

Contribute to the security and resiliency of the system by designing for failure from the ground up.

Participate in a rigorous code review process and help your colleagues maintain our software in a production‑ready state at all times.

Apply a customer‑centric view to the development of new end‑to‑end features and functions and help realize them across the stack.

Contribute to the design of new Oxide hardware and software components elsewhere in the stack.

Are familiar with operating systems or virtualization concepts and comfortable in C, Rust, or other low‑level systems languages.

Seek the versatility of working from core OS architecture to hardware interface to networking to virtual device development.

Enjoy the freedom of blazing your own architectural trails and solving problems from first principles.

Have previously worked in the guts of operating systems or virtualization technologies such as illumos, KVM, Hyper‑V, or related systems.

Are up to the challenge of interfacing with hardware that has missing or inaccurate documentation.

Appreciate the hard‑won thrill of debugging a knotty problem to root cause.

Believe in fully documenting your ideas for both current colleagues and your own future self.

Enjoy reading excellent documentation produced by others.

Make the tools you wish you had.

Communicate effectively with engineers across a range of disciplines to exchange knowledge and expertise.

Helios on the genesis of our illumos derivative as discussed in RFD 26.

We are very explicit about our values, and they can be seen in daily life at Oxide, for example:

Our rigor means we enjoy and take pride in the craft of engineering.

Our urgency means that we are not above the judicious short‑cut.

Our versatility is reflected in our greatest strength: the breadth of our team.

Our transparency can be seen in our consensus‑driven RFD process.

Our responsibility means that we both lead and follow: we have our own domains, but we also help others on their parts.

Our curiosity shows in our insatiable desire to learn – and our empathy in our love of teaching others.

Our humor is a big part of our daily lives: we are inveterate wise‑crackers whose video meetings spill into simultaneous text chat.

Most of our team are based outside of the Bay Area. We do ask that your workday overlaps with Pacific Time for at least four hours.

Our families and lives outside of our jobs are very important to us; our schedules are flexible to reflect and support that.

We offer the best medical PPO, dental, and vision plans we can find and cover 100% of premiums for employees and dependents.

Everyone at Oxide makes $235,000 USD, regardless of location. (Some sales positions have a lower base salary and contain a commission component.)