Freelance Linux Kernel Development Jobs in Pennsylvania

We are hiring experienced Systems Software Engineers across multiple NetApp engineering organizations. This pipeline posting is designed to attract strong C/C++ systems-level engineers who can contribute to core storage and data management technologies across ONTAP and other NetApp products. Candidates will be considered for roles on several teams, including ONTAP, WAFL, Replication/HA, Protocols (NFS/SMB/SAN/NVMe), Distributed Systems, Cloud Platforms, and Performance Engineering.
Engineers in these roles design, build, and optimize foundational components of NetApp's storage stack. You will work on real-world problems involving filesystems, storage internals, distributed systems, performance, scalability, reliability, and data integrity. Work may include developing new features, enhancing subsystems, analyzing complex code paths, improving throughput and latency, debugging customer issues, or driving proofs of concept. You will collaborate with senior engineers, product teams, hardware teams, and cloud engineering groups to deliver high-quality software used globally by enterprise customers.
This posting can support multiple levels (3, 4, and 5). Team and level placement will be determined during the interview process based on experience, technical depth, and demonstrated capabilities.

Core Responsibilities (All Levels)

• Design, implement, and enhance features within ONTAP and related NetApp storage systems
• Write high-quality C/C++ code that is efficient, reliable, and maintainable
•  Analyze and improve existing code paths for performance, scalability, and correctness
• Debug complex issues using system-level tools, logs, tracing, and profiling
•  Collaborate across engineering teams, including filesystem, protocol, cloud, hardware, and QA
• Participate in design and code reviews, contributing to engineering best practices
• Investigate performance bottlenecks and implement optimizations
• Support prototyping, research, and feasibility analysis for new ideas and features
• Communicate design decisions, technical findings, and progress clearly with peers
• Use AI-assisted tools to accelerate design, development, testing, and troubleshooting

LevelSpecific Requirements

• Software Engineer 3 (5-8 years)
  •  Owns well-defined components or features
  • Implements end-to-end functionality with guidance
  • Performs profiling, debugging, and testing across subsystems
  • Contributes to design discussions and supports cross-team integration
  • Ramps quickly on ONTAP, WAFL, protocols, or storage technologies
• Software Engineer 4 (9-15 years)
  
  •  Designs and owns complex subsystems or multi-sprint epics
  • Drives cross-team delivery with minimal supervision
  • Mentors junior and mid-level engineers
  • Leads deep-dive debugging and performance analysis
  • Improves reliability, observability, and architecture patterns
• Software Engineer 5 (12-16 years)
  • Leads major technical initiatives across teams or product line
  • Defines long-term architectural direction and technical strategy
  • Resolves highly complex system-wide issues in performance, data integrity, HA, scale, or protocols
  • Mentors senior engineers and influences engineering culture
  • Demonstrates deep domain expertise in filesystems, operating systems, HA/replication, or distributed systems

Required Technical Qualifications

•  Strong proficiency in C/C++ for systems-level development
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, memory management, and concurrency
• Experience with Unix/Linux systems programming
• Experience with one or more: filesystems, storage systems, networking/protocol stacks, distributed systems, high-availability architectures
• Strong debugging and performance analysis skills (gdb, perf, tracing, profiling tools)
• Ability to write maintainable, well-documented code
• Effective communication and collaboration skills

Qualifications that make you stand out: 

• Experience with ONTAP, WAFL, or similar storage operating systems
•  Experience with NFS, SMB, SAN (iSCSI/FC), NVMe/TCP, NVMe-oF
•  Experience with replication, clustering, HA, or consistency protocols
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI)
•  Exposure to kernel subsystems, VFS, IO schedulers, caching, or media management
• Experience with distributed systems design and large-scale performance tuning
• Knowledge of CI/CD, test automation, and modern development practices

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field
•  Equivalent practical experience considered