Software Engineer, Compute and Isolation

Baseten

. Own the microVM lifecycle for agent sandboxes: start, stop, suspend, resume, snapshot, and fork .

Posted 10/27/2026full-timeUnited StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $165,000 - $330,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in managing microVM lifecycles and building custom guest kernels, with a strong focus on performance tuning and debugging across userspace and kernel boundaries. Proficient in designing secure multi-tenant infrastructures and contributing to open-source virtualization projects.

Highest-signal resume keywords

KVMFirecrackerCloud HypervisorRustLinux Internals

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Systems ProgrammingMulti-Tenant InfrastructureDebugging Performance IssuesVM Snapshot and RestoreCustom Linux Kernel Tuning

Soft Skills

Problem OwnershipCollaboration in Small Teams

Tools & Technologies

ContainerdRuncGVisorKata ContainersEBPF

Industry Keywords

VirtualizationMicroVMIsolationCloud InfrastructurePerformance Tuning

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudLinuxRustC++Go

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own the microVM lifecycle for agent sandboxes: start, stop, suspend, resume, snapshot, and fork
Build and tune the custom guest kernels sandboxes run on
Tune host CPU and memory configuration so sandboxes run fast and safely on each type of hardware operated
Manage host-level resources and sandbox density on each machine
Own startup and resume performance end to end, from VM boot or snapshot restore to the first command
Own the guest and host side of each sandbox: its identity, storage attachments, and virtual network devices
Design isolation for multi-tenant workloads where the hypervisor is the security boundary
Debug virtualization and isolation issues at scale, from userspace through the kernel to the hardware
Contribute architecture decisions and code back to the open-source projects Baseten builds on
Build infrastructure for Baseten Sandboxes, which provide isolated microVM environments for AI agents

Requirements

What you’ll need

Hands-on experience with KVM, plus Firecracker, Cloud Hypervisor, or QEMU
Deep understanding of Linux internals: namespaces, cgroups, memory management, and the boot path
Experience building cloud infrastructure as the provider (multi-tenant compute that customers run on), not only running workloads on a cloud provider
Experience building multi-tenant infrastructure where isolation is a security boundary
Strong systems programming background in Rust and/or Go; C/C++ also welcome
Experience debugging performance and correctness problems across userspace and kernel boundaries
Experience moving fast and owning a problem end to end on a small team
Contributions to KVM, Firecracker, Cloud Hypervisor, QEMU, rust-vmm, or the Linux kernel are nice to have
Experience with Xen is nice to have
Working knowledge of container runtimes and sandboxing (containerd, runc, gVisor, Kata Containers) is nice to have
Experience with VM snapshot and restore, fast VM resume, or building and tuning custom Linux kernels is nice to have
Experience running virtualization on bare metal and tuning for specific CPU and memory architectures is nice to have
Experience building a sandbox, serverless, or function runtime product is nice to have
Familiarity with Linux performance tooling such as eBPF, perf, and ftrace is nice to have

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity
(U.S. only) 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break
Paid parental leave
Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot
(U.S. only) Company-facilitated 401(k)
Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities