Member of Technical Staff - Kernel/BSP
Job Description
About Wind River
Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for mission-critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability.
Wind River helps customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries solve complex technology challenges on their journey toward the new intelligent machine economy. The company's software powers generation after generation of the safest, most secure systems in the world. Examples include playing a key role in NASA space missions such as Artemis I, the James Webb Space Telescope, and multiple Mars rovers. We've achieved recent 5G milestones including the world's first successful 5G data session with Verizon and building one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world with Vodafone.
The company has received industry recognition for its technology innovation and leadership, and for its workplace culture, including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a Top Workplace for ten consecutive years. If you want to be part of a unique culture where the lived experience is based on our cultural attributes of growth mindset, customer-focus, and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, come join us and help advance the future software defined world.
About The Role
As a Member of Technical Staff on the Wind River Linux team, you're the senior technical anchor for a safety-critical embedded Linux platform — and this is a build-and-decide role, not a keep-it-running one. You own the architecture-level calls across the Yocto build system, Linux kernel, and multiple BSPs; you drive where we go upstream; and you build the engineering workflows the whole team runs on. Yes, you'll keep the platform solid — but the reason this role exists is to move it forward: the tooling migration, the AI-native engineering stack, the upstream strategy, and the cross-layer problems no single track owner can close.
You're the person the team leans on when a problem spans the kernel, the BSP, the build system, and a customer's field deployment all at once — and the one who decides how we solve that class of problem for good, not just this once.
What You'll Do
Linux Kernel & Low-Level Development
In a world increasingly driven by software innovation, Wind River is pioneering the technologies that accelerate the digital transformation of our customers with a new generation of mission‑critical AI systems—built for an AI‑first world with the most exacting safety, security, performance, and reliability standards. Our success depends on our ability to innovate with velocity and deliver solutions that help customers solve their toughest challenges.
Wind River is a global leader in mission‑critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, we have been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that demand the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. We support customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries as they build the next generation of intelligent machines.
Wind River's technology has supported historic achievements—from NASA's Artemis I and the James Webb Space Telescope to multiple Mars rovers, as well as the world's first successful 5G data session with Verizon and one of the largest Open RAN networks with Vodafone.
With industry recognition for innovation, leadership, and workplace excellence—including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a Top Workplace for ten straight years—Wind River offers a culture built on growth mindset, customer focus, and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging.
Your Benefits At Wind River
Wind River is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
Privacy Notice - Active Candidates: https://www.aptiv.com/privacy-notice-active-candidates
Aptiv is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for mission-critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability.
Wind River helps customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries solve complex technology challenges on their journey toward the new intelligent machine economy. The company's software powers generation after generation of the safest, most secure systems in the world. Examples include playing a key role in NASA space missions such as Artemis I, the James Webb Space Telescope, and multiple Mars rovers. We've achieved recent 5G milestones including the world's first successful 5G data session with Verizon and building one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world with Vodafone.
The company has received industry recognition for its technology innovation and leadership, and for its workplace culture, including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a Top Workplace for ten consecutive years. If you want to be part of a unique culture where the lived experience is based on our cultural attributes of growth mindset, customer-focus, and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, come join us and help advance the future software defined world.
About The Role
As a Member of Technical Staff on the Wind River Linux team, you're the senior technical anchor for a safety-critical embedded Linux platform — and this is a build-and-decide role, not a keep-it-running one. You own the architecture-level calls across the Yocto build system, Linux kernel, and multiple BSPs; you drive where we go upstream; and you build the engineering workflows the whole team runs on. Yes, you'll keep the platform solid — but the reason this role exists is to move it forward: the tooling migration, the AI-native engineering stack, the upstream strategy, and the cross-layer problems no single track owner can close.
You're the person the team leans on when a problem spans the kernel, the BSP, the build system, and a customer's field deployment all at once — and the one who decides how we solve that class of problem for good, not just this once.
What You'll Do
Linux Kernel & Low-Level Development
- Drive determinism, real-time (PREEMPT_RT), and reliability improvements that hold up under safety-critical scrutiny — you set the technical bar here.
- Debug the deepest kernel, driver, networking, and boot issues across ARM/x86 (and PPC/RISC-V where relevant) with GDB, JTAG, ftrace, and perf.
- Own kernel maintenance across LTS lines as the baseline — backports, CVE remediation, -stable rebases, local-patch discipline — and, more importantly, decide the strategy that shrinks that burden over time.
- Own the Yocto/OpenEmbedded architecture — layers, templates, recipe design, and the build-farm topology that produces the release matrix.
- Serve as the technical expert across multiple BSPs (Intel x86, ARM/Zynq MP, NXP i.MX, TI, NVIDIA Tegra, and the growing edge-AI board set): machine configs, kernel provider resolution, layer architecture, and platform bring-up.
- Resolve the cross-layer, cross-repo problems (recipe + BSP + kernel + template) that no single track owner can close alone.
- Drive AI-native engineering — CVE triage, test generation, build diagnosis — as the person who builds the workflows the team runs on, not just consumes them.
- Make and own the architecture calls on the tooling migration: source host, CI, issue tracking, and the CVE-automation stack.
- Own the reliability of release-critical systems — OOBE/Sanity gates, the CVE-verification pipeline, SBOM/IP flow, and the CI that ties them together.
- Define and drive the upstream strategy — what we push upstream vs. carry as local patches — and represent WRLinux's technical direction in OSS communities.
- Champion upstream-first CVE handling.
- Provide technical direction, design reviews, and code reviews that raise the whole team's bar.
- Mentor engineers and compress their ramp-up under an AI-paired model.
- Remove single points of failure by documenting and systematizing product knowledge.
- Support customer escalations as the deep technical specialist of last resort.
- BE/BTech or ME/MTech in CS/ECE/EE or equivalent; 8–12 years in embedded Linux.
- Deep expertise in Linux kernel (architecture, drivers, debugging) and C; strong Python for tooling/automation; C++ a plus.
- Extensive hands-on Yocto/OpenEmbedded and BSP experience, multi-board bring-up, layer/recipe architecture, hardware-software integration.
- Proven technical leadership and mentoring of engineering teams.
- Strong debugging with GDB, JTAG, kernel tracing, and performance tooling.
- Familiarity with ARM/x86 (PPC/RISC-V a plus), networking, and virtualization.
- Agile + CI/CD fluency; Git/Linux daily driver.
- Excellent communication and cross-functional stakeholder skills; effective in a globally distributed team.
- OSS/upstream contribution track record (kernel or Yocto layers).
- Edge-AI inference stacks on embedded silicon (TensorRT, OpenVINO, ONNX Runtime, TF Lite)
In a world increasingly driven by software innovation, Wind River is pioneering the technologies that accelerate the digital transformation of our customers with a new generation of mission‑critical AI systems—built for an AI‑first world with the most exacting safety, security, performance, and reliability standards. Our success depends on our ability to innovate with velocity and deliver solutions that help customers solve their toughest challenges.
Wind River is a global leader in mission‑critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, we have been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that demand the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. We support customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries as they build the next generation of intelligent machines.
Wind River's technology has supported historic achievements—from NASA's Artemis I and the James Webb Space Telescope to multiple Mars rovers, as well as the world's first successful 5G data session with Verizon and one of the largest Open RAN networks with Vodafone.
With industry recognition for innovation, leadership, and workplace excellence—including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a Top Workplace for ten straight years—Wind River offers a culture built on growth mindset, customer focus, and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging.
Your Benefits At Wind River
- Named Top Workplace for the 10th year in a row
- Wind River's strong commitment to DEIB
- Birthday and Volunteer Time Off
- Competitive Salary & Benefits Package
- Extensive Learning Programs
- Wellness benefits through Unmind
Wind River is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
Privacy Notice - Active Candidates: https://www.aptiv.com/privacy-notice-active-candidates
Aptiv is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
More Info
About Company