Cloud and DevOps engineers, as platform builders. At the open-source platform companies, like Red Hat and Canonical, these engineers build the products themselves. They work on Kubernetes distributions such as OpenShift, private-cloud software such as OpenStack, automation platforms and the release engineering that ships a certified distribution. At the developer clouds, like DigitalOcean, they build and run the services that customers rent. It is the largest role here, hired several times as often, relative to all hiring, as at a typical product company. The postings require Go and Python first, then Kubernetes and Linux, and many also require experience with infrastructure for AI workloads.

C/C++ systems engineers on Linux. The bottom of the stack belongs to the C/C++ systems engineer. The work covers the Linux kernel and its drivers, the hypervisor that splits one server into many virtual machines (KVM and QEMU), file systems and distributed storage (Ceph), and the packaging that turns thousands of open-source parts into one operating system. Rust now appears beside C and C++. This is the second large role, and it is concentrated here as in few other places.

Go backend engineers. Kubernetes and most cloud control systems are written in Go, so it is the natural language for the services around them. Go backend engineers write cloud APIs, the services that create and bill for cloud resources, and Kubernetes operators, often with gRPC. They are far more common here than at a typical product company.

Software Engineer, Security. These are software engineers who specialise in security, building login systems, cloud and network protections, and the checks that keep code safe. A shipped operating system or a public cloud has to be certified and patched for years, and that keeps them in demand here, well beyond the level at most product companies. Their work covers security fixes and the response to newly found vulnerabilities in the distribution, compliance with standards such as FIPS and SOC 2, cryptography, and identity for cloud accounts.

Embedded firmware engineers. Linux does not only run on servers. Firmware engineers here prepare the operating system for devices, working on bootloaders such as U-Boot, embedded Linux built with Yocto, and support for ARM, x86 and RISC-V boards. They are hired more often than at most product companies.

GenAI engineers. GenAI engineers build AI features and agents into the platforms, in Python with LangGraph and LangChain, often running on Kubernetes. Their share of hiring is close to that at other product companies.

Test engineers. Much of the testing here is of the operating system and the platforms themselves, on real and virtual machines, automated in Python and Java. Testers are a slightly smaller part of hiring than at most product companies.

Frontend engineers. A smaller group builds the consoles and dashboards of the platforms and the web-hosting products, in React and TypeScript.

Rare here. Java is almost absent. .NET, Python backend, data engineering, mobile and the enterprise platforms barely appear either, because the products here are written in C, Go and Python rather than in the enterprise stacks.