Kernel / Hypervisor Engineer, Firecracker

Requirements

• Experience (non-internship) in professional software development
• Hands-on experience with low-level systems programming (e.g., kernel, hypervisor, firmware, or embedded systems)
• Proficiency in at least one systems language: C, C++, or Rust
• Solid understanding of Linux internals (syscalls, memory management, process
• Experience with virtualization technologies (KVM, Xen, QEMU, or similar)

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Rust in production systems
• Contributions to open-source projects (kernel, hypervisor, or systems tooling)
• Experience with device emulation or virtio
• Familiarity with hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x, AMD-V, or Arm virtualization extensions)
• Knowledge of performance profiling and optimization at the systems level (perf, ftrace, eBPF)
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, develop, and maintain hypervisor and VMM components in Rust, including virtual device emulation, memory management, and vCPU scheduling
• Optimize boot latency, memory footprint, and I/O throughput for ephemeral microVM workloads at global scale
• Harden the security boundary between guest and host, contributing to threat modeling and implementing isolation mechanisms
• Contribute to the upstream Linux kernel where needed to support Firecracker's roadmap
• Mentor and coach junior engineers, drive code quality through reviews, and champion best practices
• Participate in on-call rotation to ensure operational excellence of Firecracker-based services

Perks and Benefits

• Work at the intersection of hardware and software
• Directly impact the security, performance, and efficiency of compute infrastructure
• Collaborate with global community and diverse perspectives
• Excellent work-life balance and growth opportunities
• An inclusive and empowering culture at Amazon