Lead and mentor a team of engineers in Linux Kernel and systems development, overseeing delivery, debugging, and team performance.
Available Locations: London, UK
What You'll Do
What You'll Bring
What You'll Do
- Lead and Mentor: Manage a high-performing team of kernel and systems engineers, fostering a culture of "collaboration-first" and continuous knowledge sharing both internally and with the global open-source community.
- Own the OS Lifecycle: Oversee the end-to-end delivery of the Linux Kernel and core OS components. Your goal is a fully automated continuous delivery pipeline that moves from merge to 100% production in less than 30 days.
- Drive Technical Vision: Steer the Cloudflare kernel development roadmap. You will balance the need for cutting-edge features with the absolute requirements of production stability, security, and performance.
- Upstream Advocacy: Promote a "minimal patch" philosophy by ensuring your team is a top contributor to the Linux Kernel. You will support engineers in becoming upstream maintainers for critical subsystems.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as a consultant to hardware and service teams, helping them onboard new hardware and optimize workloads for our OS. You'll lead a "virtual team" environment where any engineer at Cloudflare can contribute to the kernel.
- Innovate Debugging: Tackle the "impossible" challenges of kernel-level debugging. You will lead the development of automated systems that collect critical telemetry when a system crashes, even when traditional debuggers cannot run.
- Measure Success: Use DORA metrics and team-specific capabilities - such as the "time to fix a kernel issue" and upstream commit volume - to track and improve team impact.
What You'll Bring
- Systems Leadership: 5+ years of experience managing engineering teams, ideally in low-level systems, kernel development, or large-scale infrastructure environments.
- Low-Level Expertise: A deep understanding of Linux Kernel internals, x86/ARM architecture, and OS design fundamentals. You should be comfortable discussing memory management, schedulers, and network stacks.
- Automation Mindset: Experience building or managing CI/CD pipelines for foundational software. You believe that "toil" is a bug and automation is the feature.
- Open Source Pedigree: A proven track record of engaging with the open-source community. You understand the nuances of upstreaming and how to navigate community dynamics effectively.
- Operational Empathy: An understanding of the unique challenges of a global "reboot-limited" production environment. You prioritize stability and have experience with pre-production QA and synthetic workload evaluation.
- Strategic Communication: The ability to translate complex kernel-level obstacles into actionable business insights for stakeholders across the company.
- Resilience: You aren't intimidated by the "impossible." Whether it's a non-reproducible race condition or an unwelcoming upstream thread, you lead your team through the challenge with a pragmatic, solution-oriented mindset.
Top Skills
Arm
Automation
Ci/Cd
Linux Kernel
X86
Similar Jobs at Cloudflare
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
The Senior Solutions Engineer will collaborate with clients to drive technical discussions, implement solutions, and advise on best practices in Cloudflare products. The role involves building relationships, managing technical sales, and requires travel for meetings and events.
Top Skills:
AWSAzureBashGCPGoJavaScriptPython
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
As a Senior GTM Specialist, you will grow Cloudflare One revenue, advise sales leaders, enable account executives, and foster partner relationships while driving engagement.
Top Skills:
CasbCloudflare OneCybersecurityDlpSaas SolutionsSaseSd-WanSseSwgZtna
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
The Analytics Engineer will build data architecture, ensure data quality, develop ELT pipelines, and support business stakeholders with data insights.
Top Skills:
AirflowDbtGitGrafanaLookerPythonRScalaSQLSuperset
What you need to know about the Manchester Tech Scene
Home to a £5 billion digital ecosystem, including MediaCity, which consists of major players like the BBC, ITV and Ericsson, Manchester is one of the U.K.'s top digital tech hubs, at the forefront of advancements in film, television and emerging sectors like as e-sports, while also fostering a community of professionals dedicated to pushing creative and technological boundaries.
