Sr. Hypervisor​/Linux Kernel Developer - Software Platform

NIO Inc. is a pioneer and a leading company in the global smart electric vehicle market. Founded in November 2014, NIO aspires to shape a sustainable and brighter future with the mission of “Blue Sky Coming”.

NIO envisions itself as a user enterprise where innovative technology meets experience excellence. NIO designs, develops, manufactures and sells smart electric vehicles, driving innovations in next-generation core technologies. NIO distinguishes itself through continuous technological breakthroughs and innovations, exceptional products and services, and a community for shared growth.

NIO provides premium smart electric vehicles under the NIO brand, premium smart electric vehicles for families through the ONVO brand, and small smart high-end electric cars with the FIREFLY brand.

This role is ideal for an experienced kernel
or
hypervisor
engineer who wants to work hands-on with the foundations of NIO’s in-vehicle compute platform. You will join the core system software team behind SkyOS-H, NIO’s in-house hypervisor, and other SkyOS variants — contributing from architecture design to production deployment in next-generation intelligent vehicles.

You’ll work on low-level system software designed for real-time, high-efficiency, and safety-critical automotive environments. This includes optimizing latency and throughput, refining vIRQ handling, improving cache and memory subsystem efficiency (SMMU, coherency, and paging), and leveraging Arm V8 virtualization extensions (VHE). You will contribute to hypervisor scheduling, partition isolation, and secure domain management to achieve automotive-grade determinism and performance on modern SoCs.

From early architecture exploration to kernel integration, driver development, validation, and production rollout — your work will directly power live vehicle systems. You’ll enable mission-critical domains such as AD/ADAS compute
, sensor fusion
, and secure boot/trusted execution (Trust Zone, OP-TEE).

In collaboration with AI and cloud teams, you’ll also support emerging LLM-based intelligent copilots and in-vehicle assistants
, where hypervisor-level performance and scheduling directly enhance on-vehicle AI responsiveness. This role offers a rare opportunity to build real products that blend operating systems, virtualization, and intelligence at the edge — all within a fast-moving automotive environment.

• Develop and execute a microkernel-based operating system and hypervisor tailored for diverse on-vehicle applications in autonomous driving vehicles.
• Analyze and enhance operating system functionalities for real-time performance, high efficiency, security, and functional safety.
• Collaborate with the team to discuss and refine designs and implementations.
• Lead through demonstration, serving as both a mentor and a mentee to foster team growth and knowledge sharing.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 1+ years of experience in embedded systems or low-level system software development.
• Strong coding skills inC,
  ARM assembly
  , and in-line assembly.
• Deep understanding of
  Arm V8 architecture
  : GIC, SMMU, cache hierarchy, and Arm Virtualization Host Extensions (VHE).
• Proficiency in
  Git
  ,C/C++,
  Python
  , and object-oriented programming.
• Experience with
  Linux
  kernel
  development or driver subsystems.
• Knowledge of
  embedded
  system security
  :
  Arm Trust Zone, OP-TEE, Secure Boot.
• Ability to thrive and contribute effectively within a global, cross-functional engineering team.

• Anthem PPO, HSA, and Kaiser HMO medical plans with $0 for Employee Only Coverage.
• Dental…