Operating Systems Engineer, Linux Kernel | Consumer Devices

About the Role

As an Operating Systems Engineer focused on the Linux kernel, you will design, develop, and maintain the kernel capabilities that underpin OpenAI’s consumer devices. You’ll bring deep expertise in one or more Linux kernel subsystems and carry solutions through the higher-level software stack.

Your ownership will extend into the userspace services, libraries, tools, and interfaces needed to deliver complete product features. You’ll shape the boundaries between kernel and userspace, make design decisions across the stack, and see your work through development, integration, and production.

In this role, you will:

• Build kernel capabilities: Design, implement, and maintain Linux kernel subsystem changes that support device capabilities and product requirements.

• Own features across the stack: Choose appropriate kernel and userspace boundaries, and build the interfaces and supporting components needed to deliver reliable features in shipped products.

• Debug complex system behavior: Use tracing, profiling, instrumentation, and diagnostic tools to resolve correctness, concurrency, performance, power, and reliability issues in development and production.

• Measure and validate improvements: Develop tests and representative workloads to demonstrate repeatable performance, power, and reliability gains and detect regressions across kernel and userspace.

• Partner across disciplines: Work with hardware, firmware, platform, and application engineers to turn system requirements into understandable, maintainable solutions.

• Contribute sustainable kernel changes: Prepare reviewable patches, incorporate feedback, and contribute fixes and improvements upstream where appropriate. Maintain product-specific changes responsibly as the kernel evolves.