Staff Systems Software Engineer, Crusoe Energy Systems
Linux Kernel
$208.6-254.4k
+ Equity + Bonus
Office located in Sunnyvale, CA
Renewable-powered AI infrastructure
Be an early applicant
Renewable-powered AI infrastructure
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
$208.6-254.4k
+ Equity + Bonus
Office located in Sunnyvale, CA
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of deep Systems Programming experience, with at least 5 years focused specifically on Linux Kernel development
- Profound understanding of kernel internals, including the VFS, block layer, task scheduling, and interrupt handling
- C & Assembly Proficiency: Expert-level mastery of C and the ability to read/debug architecture-specific assembly (x86_64, ARM64)
- Virtualization-at-the-Metal: Extensive experience with KVM internals and the interaction between the hypervisor and the host kernel
- Deep knowledge of SLAB/SLUB allocators, page table management, and NUMA-aware memory allocation strategies
- Expertise in eBPF for both observability and networking/security (XDP) applications
- Experience leading large-scale architectural shifts and mentoring senior engineers on the nuances of systems-level safety and performance
What the job involves
- Crusoe is seeking a Staff Linux Kernel Engineer to serve as the primary technical authority for our operating system and hardware-interface layer
- This is a "heavy-lifting" engineering role designed for someone who views the Linux kernel not just as an OS, but as a programmable substrate for AI performance
- As a Staff Engineer, you will own the most critical paths of our compute stack
- You will be responsible for upstream-quality development, custom kernel modules, and the low-level orchestration of memory and I/O that allows our GPU clusters to operate at the theoretical limits of the silicon
- You will bridge the gap between baremetal hardware and the virtualization layer, ensuring that Crusoe's "Metal-as-a-Service" offering is the most performant in the industry
- Architect and implement enhancements to the Linux kernel’s memory management (MM), process scheduler, and I/O stack specifically for high-tenancy AI/HPC workloads
- Develop and maintain out-of-tree kernel modules and drivers that manage high-speed interconnects (NVSwitch/NVLink) and hardware accelerators
- Identify, backport, and contribute fixes and features to the mainline Linux kernel, ensuring Crusoe remains at the forefront of kernel innovation
- PCIe & IOMMU Interfacing: Lead the implementation of VFIO and SR-IOV strategies to provide secure, near-zero-latency hardware passthrough to virtualized environments
- DMA & GPUDirect RDMA: Optimize DMA mapping and memory pinning strategies to facilitate high-speed data transfers between NICs and GPUs without CPU intervention
- Hardware Abstraction: Work with hardware vendors to debug and influence the design of firmware and silicon-level features that impact kernel stability and performance
- Advanced Profiling: Utilize eBPF, ftrace, and perf to build deep observability into kernel-space bottlenecks and latency spikes
- Deep-System Debugging: Lead the investigation into complex system-level failures, including kernel panics, memory leaks, and non-deterministic hardware behavior
- Benchmarking: Establish gold-standard performance metrics for kernel-level operations that directly impact AI training times and inference throughput
Our take
Crusoe is tackling one of the biggest challenges facing the digital age: the enormous energy demand of data centres and AI infrastructure. As AI models grow more powerful, they require immense computing power (and therefor electricity) to train and operate. This surge in energy use has put some pressure on power grids, driven up costs, and raised environmental concerns. Crusoe is on a mission to make this process more sustainable by finding smarter, cleaner, and more efficient ways to power the data centres that drive modern computing.
The company started out by putting wasted energy to work. Originally known as Crusoe Energy, it captured natural gas that would otherwise be burned off ("flared") at remote oil sites and used it to power modular data centres. Today, Crusoe has evolved into a major player in AI infrastructure, designing and operating large-scale data centres near renewable or stranded energy sources. It's now one of a handful of "neocloud" companies (next-generation cloud providers focused on flexible, efficient computing for AI workloads). And its facilities are helping tech giants like OpenAI handle the massive computing requirements of training advanced AI models.
Recently, Crusoe has attracted some huge investor attention, tripling its valuation to over $10B and raising $1.4B in its latest funding round. It's building OpenAI's first major US data centre campus and even experimenting with bold new frontiers. In partnership with Starcloud, Crusoe plans to deploy the world's first space-based cloud computing infrastructure, powered by solar energy and orbiting the Earth by 2027. If successful, this could redefine how and where computing happens, opening up a cleaner, virtually limitless source of energy for AI's next generation.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Oct 2025
$1.4bn
SERIES E
Dec 2024
$600m
SERIES D
Total funding: $2.5bn
Company benefits
- Health & wellbeing: Comprehensive health benefits designed to support your overall wellness
- Time away: Paid time off for vacations, family bonding, and unexpected needs
- 401(k) match: Build your financial future with our 401(k) matching program
- Mental wellness: Resources and support for your emotional wellbeing and navigating life's challenges
Company HQ
LoDo, Denver, CO
Leadership
Cully Cavness
(Co-Founder, COO & President)Began their career as an Energy Infrastructure Research Fellow before spending 3 years as a Business Development Manager at Recurrent Engineering and serving as CFO of Sword & Plough. They left their role as VP of Highlands Natural Resources to co-found Crusoe Energy Systems.
Chase Lochmiller
(Co-Founder & CEO)Prior to co-founding Crusoe in 2018, Chase was a General Partner at Polychain Capital, a Quantitative Trade at Jump Trading Group, and a Managing Director of Algorithmic Trading at KCG Holdings.
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