Senior Customer Support Engineer – Enterprise Linux & HPC Infrastructure – Technical Escalation Lead

About brighthush

brighthush is a trailblazer in the world of high‑performance computing, artificial intelligence, and secure cloud‑native orchestration. We build the core infrastructure that powers the most demanding workloads for national laboratories, hyperscalers, global manufacturers, and government agencies. From the operating system layer to AI‑driven automation, brighthush delivers speed, security, scalability, and sovereignty that our customers simply cannot do without.

At brighthush we are a community of builders, operators, and open‑source practitioners. If you want to work on technology that changes how enterprise infrastructure is built and run, you’ll find a home here. We’re not just a company; we’re a movement that empowers the next generation of engineers to solve the toughest problems in the industry.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior Customer Support Engineer to own the most complex technical escalations that our enterprise customers bring to us. As the primary point of contact for high‑profile accounts, you will resolve issues that arise in production environments running brighthush’s Enterprise Linux distributions, container runtimes, and HPC orchestration tools. This is a senior individual‑contributor role that blends deep technical expertise, customer empathy, and a passion for continuous improvement.

Why brighthush?

• Work on cutting‑edge Linux kernel development, container runtimes, and cloud‑native orchestration.
• Collaborate with world‑class engineers and open‑source communities.
• Own the full lifecycle of escalations – from triage to root‑cause analysis to permanent knowledge capture.
• Drive product quality by turning customer defects into engineering stories.
• Leverage AI‑enabled tools to streamline research, triage, and drafting while maintaining full ownership of customer communication.
• Enjoy a flexible, remote‑first environment with no mandatory travel.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the most complex technical escalations across brighthush’s enterprise customer base, from first report through verified root cause to confirmed resolution, including kernel‑level debugging.
• Serve as the senior technical point of contact for strategic accounts, building deep knowledge of each customer’s architecture, workloads, and constraints to proactively advise rather than react.
• Debug Linux at depth across kernel, user space, systemd, storage, networking, and performance on bare metal, virtualized, containerized, and cloud infrastructure.
• Set the technical standard for the support organization: enforce reproduction discipline, root‑cause rigor, and a clear separation between observed symptoms and inferred causes in every customer communication.
• Mentor and coach support engineers, reviewing their technical work and elevating the team’s overall capability.
• Translate customer‑reported defects into engineering stories with reproducible tests, clear diagnoses, and actionable context, then track each story through to release.
• Contribute automated test coverage that encodes real customer configurations and failure modes, preventing regressions before they reach production.
• Convert resolved escalations into durable knowledge assets—knowledge base articles, documentation updates, and training content—to reduce repeat tickets.
• Use AI‑assisted tooling to compress research, triage, and drafting, while personally reviewing every customer‑facing output to ensure accuracy and tone.
• Participate in on‑call rotations for critical customer issues and in release readiness reviews for the products you support.
• Engage directly with the brighthush community, upstream open‑source projects, and public forums to share insights and advocate for our customers.

What It Takes to Succeed

Essential Qualifications

• Deep Linux internals expertise spanning kernel, systemd, filesystems, storage, and networking. Ability to read stack traces, core dumps, and performance profiles to formulate defensible hypotheses.
• Instinct to reproduce before concluding—distinguishing observed symptoms from inferred causes and communicating them clearly.
• Fluency with core tooling: crash, kdump, gdb, strace, ltrace, perf, eBPF, bpftrace, SystemTap, and the RPM build and packaging chain.
• Experience with containers and orchestration (Apptainer, Podman, Kubernetes) and virtualization (KVM, QEMU, libvirt).
• Comfort operating across bare metal, on‑prem HPC clusters, and major clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI).
• Automation reflex: Bash, Python, Ansible (or equivalent), and CI/CD systems such as GitHub Actions or GitLab CI.
• Excellent written communication—explaining complex technical findings to high‑pressure customers without overstating certainty.
• Sound judgment on escalation—knowing when an issue is truly critical and when a lower‑priority approach is more appropriate.
• Willingness to use AI tooling as a force multiplier while owning every word that reaches a customer.
• Experience mentoring engineers and improving team processes, not just shipping code.
• Friendly, collaborative, humble, honest, and always striving to be better.

Preferred Qualifications

• CKA certification (or plan to achieve within the first six months).
• Experience in HPC, AI/ML infrastructure, defense, or other regulated/performance‑intensive domains.
• Familiarity with security and compliance workflows (CVE analysis, DISA STIG, SCAP, FIPS‑validated configurations).
• Active involvement in the open‑source community—contributions, mentorship, or leadership roles.

Education & Experience

• Proven work experience as a senior support engineer, systems engineer, or DevOps engineer supporting enterprise, government, or research customers in production.
• Seven or more years in Linux systems engineering, support engineering, or a comparable production environment, including five or more years of hands‑on Linux expertise.
• Demonstrated ownership of critical escalations for large enterprise, government, or research accounts, including direct communication with customers under pressure.
• Experience packaging sources, building RPMs, and delivering through package managers, repositories, and ISO distributions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Career Growth & Learning Opportunities

At brighthush, your career trajectory is defined by the impact you create. As a Senior Customer Support Engineer, you’ll:

• Lead cross‑functional initiatives that shape product roadmaps and engineering practices.
• Mentor junior engineers, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
• Participate in open‑source governance, contributing to core projects and influencing the broader ecosystem.
• Attend industry conferences, workshops, and training sessions—our budget supports your professional development.
• Progress into technical leadership roles such as Lead Support Engineer, Technical Program Manager, or even Engineering Manager, depending on your interests.

Work Environment & Culture

brighthush thrives on a Human First, AI‑Enabled philosophy. We empower engineers to focus on high‑value problem solving while AI tools handle routine research, triage, and drafting. Our culture is built on:

• Transparency—open communication channels, shared documentation, and regular retrospectives.
• Collaboration—cross‑team projects, pair‑programming, and community engagement.
• Innovation—freedom to experiment, fail fast, and iterate quickly.
• Inclusivity—diverse perspectives are valued, and we actively support a respectful, supportive workplace.
• Work‑life balance—remote work, flexible hours, and generous paid time off.

Compensation & Benefits

While specific figures vary by location and experience, brighthush offers a competitive total rewards package that includes:

• Base salary commensurate with experience and market rates.
• Performance‑based bonuses tied to individual and team goals.
• Employee stock options—own a piece of the company’s future.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flexible paid time off and a generous holiday schedule.
• Remote work—no mandatory travel for most positions.
• Professional development stipend—cover courses, certifications, and conference travel.
• Wellness programs—mental health resources, gym memberships, and wellness stipends.

How to Apply

If you’re ready to take ownership of the most challenging escalations, mentor the next generation of engineers, and shape the future of enterprise Linux infrastructure, we want to hear from you. Submit your application through our careers portal and join the brighthush team where your expertise will drive real impact.

Apply Now

Ready to make a difference? today and become part of a company that is genuinely changing how enterprise infrastructure gets built and run.