Systems Engineer, Kernel

Core Weave is The Essential Cloud for AI™. Built for pioneers by pioneers, Core Weave delivers a platform of technology, tools, and teams that enables innovators to build and scale AI with confidence. Trusted by leading AI labs, startups, and global enterprises, Core Weave combines superior infrastructure performance with deep technical expertise to accelerate breakthroughs and turn compute into capability. Founded in 2017, Core Weave became a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: CRWV) in March 2025.

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Core Weave is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Systems Kernel Engineer to join the HAVOCK Team, reporting to the Manager of Systems Engineering. In this role, you will be a key contributor to the stability, performance, and evolution of Core Weave’s Linux‑based infrastructure. As a kernel generalist, you will debug kernel‑level issues, analyze and fix crashes, panics, and dumps, and upstream fixes and features that improve stack performance and reliability.

This position is ideal for someone who thrives in low‑level systems engineering, understands how modern workloads stress kernels, and is excited to work across a diverse hardware/software ecosystem including CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, networking, and storage.

• Python, Go, bash/sh, C
• Prometheus, Victoria Metrics, Grafana
• Linux Kernel (custom build), Ubuntu
• Intel/AMD/ARM CPUs, Nvidia GPUs, DPUs, Infiniband and Ethernet NICs
• Docker, kubernetes (k8s), Kube Virt, containerd, kubelet

• Kernel Debugging – Analyse kernel crashes, oopses, panics, and dumps to identify root causes and propose fixes.
• Upstream Contributions – Develop patches for the Linux kernel and upstream them where applicable (networking, storage, virtualization, GPU/DPU enablement).
• Stack‑Wide Support – Ensure kernel support and stability across:
  • Virtualization (Kube Virt, QEMU, vFIO)
  • Container runtimes (containerd, nydus, kubelet)
  • HPC/AI workloads (CUDA, GPUDirect, RoCE/Infini Band)
• Kernel‑Hardware Enablement – Support new hardware bring‑up across Intel, AMD, ARM CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, DPUs, and NICs.
• Performance & Stability – Tune kernel subsystems for latency, throughput, and scalability in distributed HPC/AI clusters.

• Triage and fix kernel crashes and performance regressions.
• Develop, test, and upstream kernel patches relevant to Core Weave’s hardware/software environment.
• Collaborate with hardware vendors and the Linux community on feature enablement.
• Implement diagnostics and tooling for kernel‑level observability.
• Work closely with HPC and Fleet teams to ensure kernel readiness for production workloads.
• Provide kernel‑level expertise during incident response and root‑cause investigations.

• 5+ years of professional experience in Linux kernel engineering or systems‑level development.
• Deep understanding of kernel internals (memory management, scheduling, networking, storage, drivers).
• Experience debugging kernel crashes, dumps, and panics using tools like crash, gdb, kdump.
• Strong C programming skills with the ability to write maintainable and upstream‑quality code.
• Experience working with kernel modules, drivers, and subsystems.
• Strong problem‑solving abilities with a full‑stack systems perspective.

• Contributions to the Linux kernel or related open‑source projects.
• Familiarity with virtualization (KVM, QEMU, VFIO) and container runtimes.
• Networking stack expertise (Infini Band, RoCE, TCP/IP performance tuning).
• GPU/DPU bring‑up and driver experience.
• Experience in HPC or large‑scale distributed systems.
• Familiarity with QA/QE best practices.
• Experience working in Cloud environments.
• Experience as a software engineer writing large‑scale applications.
• Experience with machine learning is a huge bonus.

The base salary range for this role is $165,000 to $242,000. The starting salary will be determined based on job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, and market location. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package includes a discretionary bonus, equity awards, and a comprehensive benefits program.

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a variety of benefits to support your needs, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision…