Operating Systems Developer
Quick Summary
Cinderbyte Systems is hiring an Operating Systems Developer to build and harden core components of a modern desktop platform. The role focuses on kernel-adjacent services, driver interfaces, process scheduling, memory management, and system instrumentation. We welcome motivated graduates and early-career engineers with strong low-level fundamentals, and we also encourage experienced systems developers to apply.
Role Snapshot
Project Category or Industry: Operating systems, desktop platform, endpoint security and performance
Type: Full-time employment
Experience Level: Entry to mid level (strong fundamentals required; senior applicants considered)
Duration: Long term, ongoing roadmap
Location: Remote across North America and Europe; 4-hour overlap with Eastern Time preferred; optional hybrid in Austin, TX and Berlin, DE
Salary: USD 100,000–140,000 base (or local equivalent) plus annual bonus eligibility and equity; comprehensive benefits
Payment Mode: Monthly payroll via direct deposit
Hiring Company Name: Cinderbyte Systems
Required Skills or Tools: Proficiency in C/C++, familiarity with Rust, OS internals, debugging with GDB/LLDB, performance profiling, Git, CMake/Bazel, Linux or BSD experience
Project Description
The team is delivering a secure, high-performance desktop operating environment with an emphasis on reliability and developer ergonomics. This role contributes to the userspace system services layer and select kernel interfaces, ensuring predictable performance on commodity hardware and tight integration with our security and update pipelines. The purpose is to ship a robust daily-driver OS that is easy to support at scale.
Core Responsibilities and Expected Deliverables
You will design and implement scheduling improvements, memory and I/O optimizations, and resource accounting features. Typical deliverables include production-ready modules, automated tests, performance regressions dashboards, and developer documentation. You will participate in code reviews, triage issues from telemetry, and own iterative releases that roll out safely through our staged update system.
Required Experience and Preferred Qualifications
Successful candidates demonstrate competence with data structures, concurrency, and operating systems concepts such as syscalls, virtual memory, threading, and filesystems. Prior exposure to kernel development, device drivers, or eBPF is a plus. A degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience is welcome; open-source contributions and published performance investigations are valued. Security-minded engineering and an ability to reason about failure modes will distinguish top applicants.
Tools or Platforms to Be Used
Day-to-day work involves C/C++17, Rust for select components, CMake or Bazel for builds, GitHub for source control, and CI with self-hosted runners. Profiling and tracing use perf, flamegraphs, ETW equivalents, and eBPF-based tools. Systems testing leverages QEMU/KVM, containerized integration suites, and hardware-in-the-loop rigs.
Language Requirement
English is required for documentation and collaboration. German or Spanish is a plus for regional support but not required.
Communication Style
Engineering collaboration occurs in Slack for async discussions, Zoom for design reviews, and email for official approvals. We maintain architectural decision records and RFCs in Notion and Confluence.
Time Commitment or Working Window
A standard 40-hour workweek with flexible start times; a minimum of four hours of overlap with 14:00–18:00 UTC is requested for team ceremonies and incident response.
Payment Terms
This is a salaried role with monthly payroll. Equity grants and an annual performance bonus are included. Relocation assistance is available for candidates opting into hybrid sites.
Evaluation Criteria
Candidates will be assessed on a brief systems-thinking screen, a practical coding exercise focused on concurrency and memory safety, and a performance debugging walkthrough using a provided trace. We will review past project artifacts, open-source work, and conduct a final panel covering architecture trade-offs and secure coding practices.
Other Requirements
Employment is contingent on a standard background check and signing a confidentiality agreement. For select components, export compliance review may be required. Occasional on-call participation is shared across the team with compensatory time.
About the Company
Cinderbyte Systems is a privately held software company focused on building a secure, maintainable desktop operating platform for enterprise and enthusiast users. We operate in the operating systems and endpoint management space with distributed teams in the United States and Germany. Our approach combines careful systems engineering with a strong developer experience ethos.
Learn more at www.cinderbyte.com and reach the hiring team at careers@cinderbyte.com. Our headquarters of record is Austin, Texas, with an engineering hub in Berlin. We are committed to inclusive hiring and providing the resources early-career engineers need to thrive in low-lev