Role title: Senior Software Engineer — KVM Virtualization (Cloud Hypervisor / QEMU / Libvirt) & Gardener Kubernetes Platform 
Seniority: Senior Software Engineer — 4+ years experience
Work model: 100% Remote (APAC time zone coverage)
Contract period: May 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027
Estimated effort: 2880 hours total (engagement); 2 positions

Role Summary

We are seeking Senior Software Engineers with strong Linux OS, KVM virtualization, and Gardener Kubernetes expertise to provide expert-level support and consulting. You will troubleshoot complex production issues, optimize performance, harden systems, and strengthen integration across Gardenlinux, KVM-based virtualization (Cloud Hypervisor/QEMU/Libvirt), and Gardener-managed Kubernetes clusters.

Key Responsibilities

• Configure, deploy, and maintain Gardenlinux-based environments
• Troubleshoot OS-level issues (kernel, boot, packages, system services)
• Debug custom image builds and runtime behavior
• Provide recommendations for performance tuning and security hardening

2) KVM Virtualization Stack (Cloud Hypervisor, QEMU, Libvirt)

• Configure and integrate KVM-based virtualization environments
• Analyze and resolve hypervisor/VM-level incidents
• Optimize performance across compute, networking, and storage
• Debug and tune Cloud Hypervisor and Libvirt configurations

3) Gardener Kubernetes Platform

• Troubleshoot incidents in Gardener control plane and shoot clusters
• Perform root cause analysis for provisioning, scaling, and upgrade failures
• Review configurations and propose improvements
• Support integration between Gardener, Gardenlinux, and KVM-based nodes

Required Skills & Experience

 

Gardenlinux / Linux

• Strong hands-on expertise with Debian-based Linux
• Kernel configuration and low-level troubleshooting (boot/perf/kernel)
• Experience with OS image customization and build pipelines
• Strong knowledge of systemd, package management, and OS hardening
• Familiarity integrating OS image build/deployment into CI/CD

KVM / Virtualization

• Advanced understanding of KVM, QEMU, and Libvirt architectures
• Experience configuring/troubleshooting Cloud Hypervisor
• Deep knowledge of virtualization:
  • Networking (bridges, VLANs, SDN concepts)
  • Storage (NFS)
• Hardware virtualization fundamentals, including NUMA alignment
• Automation/scripting skills in Go, Python, and/or Bash
• Host performance tuning and low-level debugging experience

Kubernetes / Gardener

• Strong Kubernetes internals knowledge (control plane, networking, scheduling)
• Hands-on experience with Gardener (seed/shoot operations and troubleshooting)
• Cluster lifecycle management: upgrades, node troubleshooting, scaling
• Observability proficiency: Prometheus (and ideally Perses)
• Ability to lead/author incident RCA and contribute to post-mortems