Solution Engineer/ Expert 80-100%

Start date: asap / latest Start date: 01.10.26

End date: 1 year (with option to extend)

Workload: 80-100%

Contract Type: Contracting

Extension: Possible

Location: Canton Zug

Home Office: 50% onsite, home office possible, flexible working hours

Tasks & Responsibilities

• Architect and Engineer our Core OS Platform: Take ownership of our custom Debian-based distribution. This includes everything from kernel customization and driver integration to the creation, maintenance, and optimization of Debian packages.
• Master the Build and Release Pipeline: Evolve and improve the infrastructure and processes used to build, test, and release our Linux distribution, ensuring reliability and reproducibility.
• Be the Ultimate Escalation Point: Act as the go-to expert for complex, low-level system issues. Perform deep-dive troubleshooting, debugging, and root-cause analysis across both software and hardware.
• Consult and Empower Development Teams: Guide internal project teams on how to best leverage the Roche Linux platform.
• Proactively Drive Improvement: Constantly seek out opportunities to enhance our distribution, tools, and processes. Whether it's improving system performance, strengthening security, or automating a complex workflow, you will be expected to identify needs and champion solutions.

Must Haves

• Deep, Hands-On Linux Mastery, 10+ years: You are a seasoned professional who is comfortable across the entire Linux stack.
• Custom Distribution Engineering: Proven, extensive experience building, modifying, or maintaining a customized Linux distribution, with a strong preference for Debian, for example using tools like debootstrap, molior and aptly.
• Expertise in Debian Packaging: You don't just apt-get install. You can create, patch, and maintain .deb packages from scratch, understanding policy, dependencies and best practices.
• Strong Scripting and Automation Skills: Fluency in Python and Shell scripting is essential for building tools and automating system tasks.
• Fundamental Systems Knowledge: A solid grasp of operating system theory, including process management, memory and filesystems, software build systems such as make and CMake, and the full testing and packaging lifecycle.
• Languages: Advanced English is mandatory; German is a welcome bonus.

Nice to Have

• Proficiency in a systems programming language like C or C++.
• Experience with embedded systems, the ARM platform, hardware drivers, and low-level hardware/software integration.
• Knowledge of modern infrastructure: virtualization with KVM, containers such as Docker and Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code with Terraform.
• Experience with cloud platforms, for example AWS.