{"id":16829,"url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-kernel-driver-software-engineer","title":"Kernel Driver Software Engineer","company":{"id":5021,"name":"Etched","domain":"etched.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/etched","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":79,"ghost_share":0.076,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":162,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":275000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":275000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"CUDA","optional":true},{"name":"CUDA Toolkit","optional":true},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true},{"name":"OpenCL","optional":true},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":true},{"name":"PyTorch C++","optional":true},{"name":"Rust","optional":true},{"name":"TensorFlow","optional":true},{"name":"TensorFlow C++","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-01-14T01:19:01Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-01-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T13:08:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":276,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":276},"description":"About Etched\nEtched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.\nKey Responsibilities\nDesign, develop, and maintain kernel-mode drivers ensuring high reliability, informative debug, and optimal performance.\n\nAnalyze and optimize driver performance for demanding AI workloads, focusing on minimizing latency and maximizing throughput.\n\nCollaborate closely with hardware engineers throughout the ASIC design process..\n\nImplement driver support for device virtualization technologies, including SR-IOV, VFIO, and para-virtualization.\n\nImplement efficient memory management strategies considering kernel memory mapping, page tables configuration, NUMA awareness for device data caching, and IOMMU configuration.\n\nBuild kernel drivers fundamentally designed to support and maintain security across host processes, physical memory spaces, and device attestation.\n\nDiagnose and resolve complex driver-related issues, using common kernel debugging tools and techniques (ftrace, dmesg, etc.) to identify and fix bugs.\n\nDesign and implement synchronization mechanisms to handle concurrent access to multiple accelerators.\n\nDevelop and execute comprehensive test plans to validate driver functionality, stability, and performance in manufacturing and in general production environments.\n\nCollaborate with software and hardware teams to diagnose and resolve complex system-level issues.\n\nRepresentative Projects\nDevelop and optimize kernel-mode drivers for new ML accelerators.\n\nImplement and optimize memory management, including kernel memory mapping and IOMMU configurations, for high-bandwidth data transfers.\n\nDebug and resolve complex driver-related issues impacting ML workload performance.\n\nDevelop performance benchmarks and profiling tools to analyze driver performance.\n\nIntegrate driver support for advanced features like hardware virtualization and security, including SR-IOV and VFIO.\n\nOptimizing PCIe communication between the host and PCIe devices, using advanced equipment like PCIe analyzers.\n\nImplement and debug power management features for PCIe devices.\n\nIntegrating ML accelerators into containerized and virtualized environments.\n\nImplementing and optimizing para-virtualization techniques for PCIe devices.\n\nConfigure and optimize page tables for efficient memory access from the ML accelerator.\n\nParticipate in hardware-software co-design reviews across teams to optimize performance and power efficiency.\n\nYou may be a good fit if you have\nProficiency in C/C++.\n\nStrong understanding of kernel-mode driver development and debugging.\n\nDeep understanding of operating system internals (Linux preferred).\n\nExperience with hardware/software interfacing and device drivers.\n\nExperience with memory management and synchronization in kernel environments.\n\nStrong understanding of PCIe and other hardware interfaces.\n\nExperience with device virtualization technologies, including SR-IOV and VFIO.\n\nStrong understanding of kernel memory mapping, page table configuration, and IOMMU.\n\nFamiliarity with hardware-software co-design principles.\n\nProven ability to analyze complex technical problems and provide effective solutions.\n\nExcellent communication and collaboration 1 skills.\n\nExperience with version control systems (e.g., Git).\n\nExperience with debugging tools (e.g., gdb, kgdb).\n\nStrong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)\nCandidates with experience in developing and debugging kernel-mode drivers for GPU or other accelerator devices.\n\nCandidates with a strong understanding of hardware/software interactions.\n\nCandidates with experience in optimizing driver performance for demanding workloads.\n\nCandidates with experience in ML workloads.\n\nCandidates who have debugged complex hardware and software interactions, especially in virtualized environments.\n\nCandidates with experience in implementing and optimizing SR-IOV and VFIO.\n\nCandidates with in-depth knowledge of kernel memory mapping, page tables, and IOMMU.\n\nCandidates with experience in hardware-software co-design projects.\n\nExperience with GPU driver development.\n\nExperience with CUDA, OpenCL, or other GPU programming models.\n\nExperience with performance profiling and benchmarking tools (perf, VTune).\n\nKnowledge of hardware virtualization techniques, including para-virtualization.\n\nExperience with CI/CD pipelines.\n\nExperience with Rust.\n\nExperience with ML frameworks like Tensorflow or Pytorch.\n\nExperience with data center orchestration technologies (Kubernetes, Docker).\n\nBenefits\nMedical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage\n$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits\n\nHousing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office\n\nRelocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)\n\nVarious wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more\n\nDaily lunch + dinner in our office\n\nUnlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification\n\nHow we’re different\nEtched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.\nWe are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5773,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Processors, MCUs & AI Chips","AI Compute & Inference","AI Chips & Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-01-14T01:19:01Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 5","filings_12m":5,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":173500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":5}],"liveness":{"score":17,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.471,"p_room":0.36,"age_days":276,"expected_fill_days":162,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":275000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-kernel-driver-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-kernel-driver-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T13:46:10Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":18492,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":5021},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=5021"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fetched-kernel-driver-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fetched-kernel-driver-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fetched-kernel-driver-software-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/etched-kernel-driver-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fetched-kernel-driver-software-engineer"}]}