Job Title: Kernel Research Engineer
Location: Cambridge, UK (Full Time On-Site)
Type: Fixed Term Contract
Duration: 12 Months (Highly Likely to Extend)
Key Responsibilities:
Research and develop CPU microarchitectural features optimized for our custom OS kernel and framework including ArkUI and ArkTS/JIT/AOT.
Design, develop, and optimize core kernel subsystems for our custom OS including scheduler, memory management, and I/O subsystems.
Design hardware-software co-optimization techniques to improve kernel performance and efficiency for our custom OS framework including ArkUI, ArkTS/JIT/AOT and Kotlin/JIT/AOT.
Performance analysis and optimization of kernel components for mobile workloads and use cases.
Optimize kernel for power efficiency and power consumption across CPU, SoC, and system-level components.
Develop simulation frameworks for kernel-level and our custom OS framework (ArkTS/JIT/AOT, ArkUI and Kotlin/JIT/AOT) workload evaluation on future CPU designs.
Propose microarchitectural enhancements for system optimization based on kernel profiling and characterization.
Develop and implement power management policies and performance scaling strategies.
Requirements:
Master/PhD degree in Computer Science/Engineering/Physics etc.
Strong knowledge of computer architectures, operating system internals, and mobile SoC design.
Extensive experience with Linux kernel development including core subsystems (scheduler, memory management, VFS, networking).
Strong programming skills in C, C++, assembly, and Python.
Understanding of CPU privilege levels, MMU/IOMMU, and virtualization extensions.
Experience with performance profiling and optimization at both kernel and microarchitectural levels.
Desirables:
Experience with Linux OS, Android OS or other microkernels.
Strong knowledge of Arm architecture, TrustZone, TEE, exception handling, and interrupt processing.
Experience with kernel profiling tools (perf, ftrace, eBPF, LTTng, SystemTap).
Knowledge of RISC-V privilege specifications or Arm architecture reference manuals.
Deep knowledge of power management frameworks, DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling), and CPU idle states.
Understanding of real-time operating systems, or deterministic execution requirements.
Experience with gem5, Sniper, or other cycle-accurate architectural simulators.
Understanding of mobile platform power optimization techniques and thermal management.
Experience with hardware-assisted virtualization and hypervisor design.
Familiarity with Android kernel, AOSP, or other mobile OS kernel implementations.
If this sounds of interest, please apply here or reach out to daniel@microtech-global.com