Senior Staff Linux Security Engineer

About the Role

The Crusoe Cloud Software Development team is seeking a passionate and experienced Senior Staff Software Engineer specializing in Linux Kernel Security. This critical role is essential in strengthening the security posture of our core Linux kernel and operating system components, which underpin our cutting-edge hardware and software solutions for the AI cloud. A deep understanding of Linux kernel internals, security vulnerabilities, mitigation techniques, and secure development practices is paramount for developing reliable, high-assurance systems.

What You'll Be Working On

• Kernel Hardening & CVE Triage: Implement kernel security enhancements, manage configuration hardening, and triage incoming CVEs to assess severity and exploitability.
• Access Control, Boot Security & Guardrails: Enforce mandatory access controls, secure the boot path, and establish CI guardrails and fuzzing coverage to prevent regressions.
• Vulnerability Research & Analysis: Research vulnerabilities across kernel, driver, and OS components to build proactive mitigations and backport non-trivial upstream fixes to production.
• Secure Development Practices: Establish and advocate for secure coding standards and best practices for kernel-level development. Conduct security-focused code reviews to identify and eliminate potential vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle.
• Security Auditing & Tools: Utilize and develop specialized tools for kernel security auditing, fuzzing, static analysis, and dynamic analysis to uncover hidden vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with security policies.
• Incident Response Support: Provide expert support during security incidents involving kernel or OS-level compromises, assisting with root-cause analysis, containment, and recovery efforts.
• Performance and Security Balance: Work to ensure that security enhancements do not unduly impact system performance, especially critical for our high-performance AI infrastructure.
• Cloud Hypervisor & Isolation: Audit, harden, and reduce privilege across Cloud Hypervisor device models and vhost-user datapaths, contributing upstream security fixes and advancing confidential computing primitives (AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX).
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with other engineering teams (hardware, hypervisor, OS development, cloud infrastructure, and security operations) to integrate security best practices and ensure a comprehensive security strategy across the stack.
• Technical Leadership: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers on kernel security best practices, fostering a culture of security awareness and excellence.
• Debugging and Root-Cause Analysis: Debug and root-cause a variety of complex security-related issues at the kernel level.

Milestones

• First 90 days: Own kernel CVE triage end to end and have shipped at least one backported fix through our full release path. Form an independent read on where our kernel configuration is weakest.
• First year: Establish a defined SLA by severity for kernel security response and consistently hit it. Define, enforce in CI, and roll out a hardening baseline across supported SKUs. Audit Cloud Hypervisor and close or schedule the highest-value isolation gaps.

What You'll Bring to the Team

• Linux Kernel Security Expertise: Proven deep knowledge of Linux kernel internals (e.g., memory management, process scheduling, system calls, I/O subsystems) with a strong focus on security aspects.
• Vulnerability & Exploitation Knowledge: Solid understanding of common kernel vulnerabilities (e.g., privilege escalation, information disclosure, denial of service) and associated exploitation techniques.
• Security Mitigations: Experience with existing Linux kernel security mitigations (e.g., ASLR, DEP/NX, SMEP/SMAP, KASLR, namespaces, cgroups, LSMs like SELinux/AppArmor).
• Secure Coding: Strong background in secure coding principles and experience conducting security-focused code reviews, particularly in C.
• Debugging & Analysis Tools: Proficiency with kernel debugging tools (e.g., GDB, crash, kgdb) and security analysis tools (e.g., valgrind, address sanitizers, fuzzers).
• Hardware Security Concepts: Familiarity with hardware-assisted security features (e.g., Intel SGX, AMD SEV, ARM TrustZone) and their relevance to kernel security.
• Experience with CVE Remediation: Experience dealing with CVE remediation and automation.
• Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, and a minimum of 5 years of relevant industry experience with at least 3 years focused on low-level operating systems or kernel security.
• Safety and Compliance: Must be able to pass a background check.

Bonus Points

• Experience with specific kernel security projects or contributions to open-source kernel security initiatives.
• Familiarity with hypervisor security and the interaction between the hypervisor and the guest kernel's security.
• Experience with hardware security modules (HSMs) or Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs).
• Background in offensive security or penetration testing at the kernel level.