Linux Kernel Engineer – Upstream / SoC Development | Fully Remote

I’m looking for an experienced

Linux Kernel Engineer with genuine upstream experience

for a fully remote role working directly on

ARM SoCs and new silicon enablement .

I’m keeping the company anonymous for now, but this is with a major semiconductor organisation and the work is genuinely close to the hardware.

What makes the role interesting This isn't primarily about maintaining an existing BSP or making small changes to an established driver.

You’ll be working on

new SoC functionality , with responsibility that can span from the hardware description all the way through to upstream Linux.

The work includes:

PCIe

host-controller support, including link up/down and hotplug

DMA and interrupt routing , including SoC-specific ICU integration

ASoC / audio

controller and codec integration

Pinctrl

and pin-function support

SPI

controller enablement and fixes

Ethernet / PHY

integration

Thermal sensor

drivers

Board bring-up and low-level hardware debugging

Upstreaming changes and working directly through review with Linux subsystem maintainers

The technical challenge The work sits right at the boundary between

silicon and Linux .

You might start with a hardware reference manual and need to work through:

For example, understanding a path such as:

and determining whether a problem is caused by the hardware configuration, interrupt routing, Device Tree, IRQ configuration, status register handling or the driver.

Or debugging a PCIe endpoint that won't enumerate by working across the

PHY, clocks, resets, link training, controller and Linux PCI subsystem .





There is also interesting work around supporting multiple SoC variants — sharing common IP while dealing with different registers, interrupts and hardware quirks without creating a collection of duplicated drivers.

I’m specifically looking for upstream experience

This is important.

I’m looking for someone who has

actually contributed to upstream Linux , not just worked on a vendor kernel or modified a BSP internally.

You should ideally have experience with:

Working with subsystem maintainers

Responding to review and revising patches

Patch series and dependencies

Kernel commit conventions

Taking changes through the upstream review process

You don’t need to be an expert in every subsystem listed above.

Strong

C / Linux kernel fundamentals, ARM/SoC experience, hardware debugging and a proven upstream track record

are more important than having a long list of specific drivers on your CV.

A good fit if... You enjoy the kind of engineering where the question isn’t just:

"Which API do I call?"

but:

"What is the hardware actually doing, how is Linux representing it, and where is the mismatch?"

And you’re comfortable getting from that question to a working implementation, testing it on real hardware and defending the design during upstream review.

The practical bits Fully remote (work from anywhere in Europe)

Highly competitive day rate (OUTSIDE IR35) Long term 2+ years

Real silicon and low-level kernel development

Genuine upstream Linux work

If you’re already working in

Linux kernel, Embedded Linux, BSP or SoC development

and have upstream contributions behind you, I’d be interested in speaking.

I’m keeping the company name private on the post, but happy to share the details directly.

#LinuxKernel #UpstreamLinux #EmbeddedLinux #ARM #SoC #DeviceTree #KernelDevelopment #Linux #PCIe #DMA #Firmware #OpenSource #EmbeddedSystems

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📌 Senior Linux Kernel Engineer (Málaga)
🏢 X4 Technology
📍 Málaga