# Operating Systems Engineer | Consumer Devices

**Company:** [OpenAI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/openai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Embedded Engineering
**Salary:** $230k – $385k/yr
**Skills:** C, C++, Rust, Linux, Ebpf, Perf, Ftrace, Wayland, Selinux, Seccomp
**Posted:** 2026-08-26

> Build and harden OS foundations for AI consumer devices, spanning kernel, services, security, performance, and application interfaces. Requires strong systems programming in C/C++, kernel experience, and debugging skills.

## Job Description

## What you will do
- Work on end-to-end OS capabilities: kernel, userspace services, application frameworks, UI toolkits, APIs.
- Develop/maintain OS components: scheduling, memory management, filesystems, drivers, IPC/RPC, security subsystems.
- Build core OS services/daemons: init, service management, device discovery, networking, time, logging, updates, crash handling.
- Design/implement security/privacy: secure boot, MAC/sandboxing, secrets management, privacy telemetry.
- Establish performance/power discipline: instrumentation, profiling, power measurement, energy tuning.
- Build debugging/observability: ftrace, perf, eBPF, crash triage.
- Provide stable platform interfaces: Wayland, input/graphics, system APIs for permissions/notifications.
- Contribute to reliability: hardening, incident response, testing.

## Required qualifications
- Strong experience with systems programming (Linux/BSD), kernel work (drivers/subsystems).
- Professional proficiency in **C, C++**.
- Experience building/maintaining core OS services/platform software.
- Track record debugging kernel/userspace issues with tracing/profiling.
- Familiarity with OS security: isolation, privilege separation, secure IPC.

## Strongly preferred
- Production **Rust** in systems contexts.
- OS security hardening: SELinux/AppArmor, seccomp, namespaces.
- Observability: eBPF, perf pipelines.
- Performance/power optimization.
- Supporting app/UI frameworks at OS boundary.

## Nice to have
- Hardware bring-up.
- OTA/update systems.
- Upstream OSS contributions (Linux kernel).

## Similar jobs

- [Perception & Fusion Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/c2360b68-1a7e-4b00-a689-1bfab5c93bbf) - Applied Intuition - Sunnyvale, CA - $200k – $275k/yr
- [Software Engineer - Robot Software Infrastructure](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/46f299b5-4319-40c7-8fa3-be6dfa2bd9a5) - Zoox - Foster City, CA - $196k – $242k/yr
- [Software Engineer, AI Accelerator Runtime](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/c00bdfb3-846f-4302-83f0-706d10463564) - OpenAI - San Francisco, CA - $266k – $445k/yr
- [Systems Software Engineer, Silicon Bringup](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/caef5dd3-3fe5-47df-a3e9-ae958d480880) - OpenAI - San Francisco, CA - $266k – $445k/yr
- [Software Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/5eea695e-4da9-4c70-8326-0e365126c430) - Applied Intuition - Sunnyvale, CA - $188k – $244k/yr

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/e8fb6177-82a6-47c9-9476-5dd9dbe95cef
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/e8fb6177-82a6-47c9-9476-5dd9dbe95cef