Kernel / Hypervisor Engineer (Rust)

TL;DR

Kernel / Hypervisor Engineer (Rust): Designing and implementing virtual machine monitor (VMM) components for Firecracker with an accent on device emulation, memory management, and guest-host interfaces. Focus on optimizing boot latency and memory footprint for ephemeral microVM workloads at global scale.

Location: Onsite in Dublin, Ireland

Company

AWS Lambda team building Firecracker, an open-source VMM purpose-built for serverless and container workloads.

What you will do

• Design and develop hypervisor and VMM components in Rust, including virtual device emulation and vCPU scheduling.
• Optimize boot latency, memory footprint, and I/O throughput for global-scale microVM workloads.
• Harden security boundaries between guest and host and implement isolation mechanisms.
• Contribute to the upstream Linux kernel to support the Firecracker roadmap.
• Mentor junior engineers, drive code quality through reviews, and champion best practices.
• Participate in on-call rotation to ensure operational excellence of services.

Requirements

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

Nice to have

• Production experience with Rust.
• 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).
• Knowledge of systems-level performance profiling (perf, ftrace, eBPF).

Culture & Benefits

• Emphasis on work-life balance and respect for personal time.
• Strong investment in growth through mentorship, challenging assignments, and training.
• Collaborative and inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives.