Ubuntu Linux Kernel Test Engineer (Python)

Location: Remote in the APAC region; office-based locations available in Taipei, Taiwan and Beijing, China.

Company

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm and the publisher of Ubuntu, providing a primary platform for AI, IoT, and cloud computing.

What you will do

• Design and develop comprehensive test plans for Ubuntu Linux kernels, focusing on functional correctness, stability, performance, and security.
• Build and improve automated test infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines for continuous quality validation across multiple versions and architectures.
• Execute and analyze stress tests covering CPU scheduling, memory management, I/O subsystems, networking, and filesystem workloads.
• Develop fuzzing harnesses using tools like syzkaller or Trinity to identify kernel vulnerabilities and reliability issues.
• Collaborate with a globally distributed team to validate fixes, catch regressions early, and ensure high reliability standards.
• Contribute to upstream test suites and document test methodologies and coverage gaps.

Requirements

• Significant programming experience in Python.
• Experience with system-level test frameworks such as LTP, kselftest, xfstests, stress-ng, or fio.
• Familiarity with Linux kernel internals, subsystems, and general systems administration.
• Experience designing and executing functional, stress, performance, or regression tests.
• Solid background with Git and CI/CD systems (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub CI).
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent communication skills.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of kernel fuzzing (syzkaller, AFL) and code coverage instrumentation (gcov, kcov).
• Experience with kernel tracing and observability tools like ftrace, perf, bpftrace, or eBPF.
• Familiarity with static analysis tools such as sparse, smatch, or Coccinelle.
• Experience with virtualization (KVM, QEMU) and Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, or OpenStack).
• Prior involvement with open source testing communities.

Culture & Benefits

• Fully remote working environment.
• Personal learning and development budget of 2,000 USD per annum.
• Annual compensation reviews and recognition rewards.
• Annual holiday leave and parental leave.
• Opportunity to travel twice a year for company 'sprints' and events.
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme.