Red Hat

Principal Software Engineer - RHIVOS - Waterford - Customer Engagement Lead

Waterford City Full time

Red Hat is leading the revolution of Software Defined Vehicle. In this role, you'll be coordinating work with other engineers, architects, documentarians, product managers, scrum masters, and community members to help Automotive partners create their next-generation platform based on Red Hat In-Vehicle OS. You will become part of the rapidly changing ecosystem, assist partners in designing their automotive on-board architecture and help them understand the value of Open-Source and standardization. Your mission will be to directly assist customers to integrate Linux into their production vehicles.

As a Principal Software Engineer you will act as an expert across a group of technologies in Red Hat In-Vehicle OS, learning the specific needs of our customers and translating this back to the team to help deliver solutions.  This role offers the unique opportunity to spend time directly collaborating with partners and customers, providing expert guidance and technical leadership to change the industry.

What you will do:

  • Periodically engage directly on-site with automotive customers and partners acting as a trusted technical advisor, hands-on low level system issues and performance problem solver and communication bridge between customer’s engineering team and Red Hat’s engineering team. Hybrid work is allowed when there aren't meetings or actual work on site.

  • Lead engagement with product stakeholders, automotive customers and partners to understand and extract use cases while collaborating with multiple teams to build an automotive platform solution.

  • Scope out and decompose large, complex engineering tasks. Design and implement technical solutions using cross team and cross-functional collaboration to deliver these tasks.

  • Recognize good industry practices and guide team and department habits to innovate on product delivery processes in order to increase quality and deliver the highest customer value, incorporating customer use cases when appropriate for example working closely with the documentation team to create first class content as part of our customer experience

  • Proactively advance the product by collaborating with the upstream communities, driving cross-functional teams and projects to make better technical and non-technical choices

  • Speak, present, and/or blog about product changes where scope is a subsystem/technical area to internal cross-functional audience, international experts or potential contributors

  • Ensure test plans for the code you create exist and that documentation is correct

What you will bring

  • Programming and debugging experience with Python and C

  • Experience with Linux: Kernel, Userspace, Performance, Boot Sequence, Containers, Application Development and Packaging, etc.

  • Advanced written and verbal English communication (CEFR C1 level or equivalent)

  • Ability to present in front of a business or community audience

  • Ability to set and manage expectations with partners, prospective customers, and engineering teams

  • Ability to drive projects, manage milestones and deadlines

  • Ability to work with a geographically distributed team across multiple time zones

  • Experience with modifying and rebuilding Linux kernels and configuring its bootloader

Nice to have:

  • Technical understanding of automotive ADAS, IVI, Cockpit systems at a Tier1 or OEM level.

  • Experience with automotive OEMs bringing these systems to production

  • Familiarity with virtualization and containerization technologies 

  • Familiarity with the Red Hat ecosystem 

  • Knowledge of how to build any Linux distribution

  • Experience with Continuous Integration / Delivery

  • Involvement in open source communities and understanding of how open source and free software communities work

  • Passion for experimenting with various kinds of hardware like single board computers, e.g., Raspberry Pi, internet of things (IoT) or automotive-grade devices

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Spread across 40+ countries, our associates work flexibly across work environments, from in-office, to office-flex, to fully remote, depending on the requirements of their role. Red Hatters are encouraged to bring their best ideas, no matter their title or tenure. We're a leader in open source because of our open and inclusive environment. We hire creative, passionate people ready to contribute their ideas, help solve complex problems, and make an impact.

Inclusion at Red Hat
Red Hat’s culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration, and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. When this is realized, it empowers people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to come together to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. Our aspiration is that everyone experiences this culture with equal opportunity and access, and that all voices are not only heard but also celebrated. We hope you will join our celebration, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all the beautiful dimensions that compose our global village.

Equal Opportunity Policy (EEO)
Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.


Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.


Red Hat supports individuals with disabilities and provides reasonable accommodations to job applicants. If you need assistance completing our online job application, email application-assistance@redhat.com. General inquiries, such as those regarding the status of a job application, will not receive a reply.