Rippling is hiring a Senior Software Engineer focused on Edge Operating Systems to own the low-level software stack powering NVIDIA Orin NX-based flight computers. You will be responsible for architecting a custom NixOS-based deployment pipeline and building high-reliability Linux systems for secure, performance-critical edge compute environments.

What You'll Do

Own the image lifecycle for flight computers, from hardware bring-up to mission deployment.
Build secure, minimal, and reproducible NixOS configurations for NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX.
Optimize performance, boot time, and reliability for mission-critical deployments.
Integrate low-level software components (GStreamer, CUDA, GPU drivers, telemetry, real-time threads) into a cohesive system.
Work closely with flight software and GNC teams to support real-time, multi-process workloads.
Develop secure update mechanisms, sandboxing, and observability tools for edge devices in hostile environments.
Lead debugging and performance analysis efforts across user space, kernel space, and hardware interfaces.
Contribute to devops and CI pipelines for embedded Linux builds and simulation environments.

What We're Looking For

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
5+ years of experience building or maintaining embedded Linux systems (Yocto, Buildroot, NixOS, or similar).
Deep familiarity with Linux internals: systemd, udev, bootloaders (e.g., U-Boot), networking, and filesystems.
Fluency in shell scripting and programming in Python, Rust, or C.
Hands-on experience with NVIDIA Jetson platforms, including GPU and camera stack integration.
Experience debugging kernel-space and user-space issues on embedded targets.

Nice to Have

Advanced degree or research experience in operating systems, embedded systems, or security.
Experience using Nix/NixOS in production for embedded or robotics systems.
Familiarity with secure boot, TPMs, cryptographic key management, and OTA update systems.
Knowledge of CUDA, GStreamer, or other high-performance Linux subsystems.
Prior work on autonomous systems, aerospace, or other safety-critical domains.
Contributions to open source operating systems or Nix community projects.