Senior Embedded Systems Engineer (Linux/OpenWrt)

Hybrid: From home and our office at Amsterdam Central Station

Salary: Between 65.000,- to 85.000 EUR plus excellent secondary benefits (see below)

Full-time: 37.5 hours per week (working part-time is also possible)

IMPORTANT: You should be living in the Netherlands

As our new Embedded Systems Engineer, you’ll be a member of our RIPE Atlas development team working on the development of the firmware running on RIPE Atlas probes - a pretty unique task! Do you have experience in this area, and are you eager to learn and share knowledge with a highly collaborative, multinational team? Then the RIPE NCC is the place for you!

RIPE Atlas is a collaborative, active Internet measurement platform built and operated by the RIPE NCC. It relies on about 13,000 vantage points (which we call probes) that are hosted by volunteers spread all across the globe measuring the network and sharing their findings. These measurements include DNS queries, traceroutes, pings, NTP, HTTP and other data.

The firmware of these probes is written mainly in C (with an appropriate level of scripting thrown in) and is available as open source. It is built using tools such as libevent and BusyBox. It runs mostly on OpenWrt or Oracle Linux, but it is available as packages for RHEL, Debian and other OSes as well. As of today, the majority of our probes run on small, dedicated hardware devices, while the rest run as software packages. The security and stability of the firmware code running on these devices are essential to the system.

🧠 In this role, you will:

• Manage the maintenance and release process (including collaboration with package maintainers) of the RIPE Atlas probe firmware and software package for various Linux-based operating systems

• Maintain and enhance the firmware, for example by working on new types of measurements or new features of existing ones

• Make sure that the firmware code is safe and sound

• Explore the use of potential new hardware devices to run the firmware on

• Depending on experience: be involved in, or collaborate with the infrastructure operators, and back-end developers (and perhaps support the front-end work too!) using your ideas, skills and code

• Be involved in design- and architecture decisions for the future of the codebase.

👀 What We're Looking For:

• Experience maintaining OpenWrt on routers, small devices, etc.; knowledge of RHEL, Debian or other Linux distributions is a plus

• Good understanding of basic networking protocols such as DHCP, IP, TCP, UDP, TLS/SSL, HTTP and DNS

• Good command of English, both written and spoken

• Ability to carry out tasks individually as well as work in a team

It would be nice if you also have:

• Experience writing C code for networking applications and scripting languages (e.g. shell, Python) around them

• Hands-on electronics knowledge

📢What you can expect from us:

• A modern, flexible and informal work environment with an emphasis on a healthy work/life balance.

• Flexible work-from-home policy, so you can arrange your weekly office and 'working from home' days in a way that works for you. Working from abroad for a number of days per year is also possible.

• An annual salary between 65.000,- to 85.000 EUR (before tax). This includes the standard 8% annual “holiday pay”.

• Excellent secondary benefits: 5% end-of-year allowance, annual budgets for health, transportation and technology purposes, non-contributory pension scheme, paid parental leave, top-tier health insurance coverage for you and your family and 33 vacation days (full-time 37.5 hours).

• A generous training budget each year that can be used for professional development

• An in-house free barista providing healthy varied lunches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and nice breakfasts on Thursdays, plus regular office drinks.

• Casual team events such as team outings, a Christmas party and summer BBQ.

👥The Software Engineering Department

We are a vibrant team of 42 talented, diverse, multicultural engineers who love working for the good of the Internet and are eager to learn from each other and evolve our skills through collaboration. You will mainly be working and interacting with about ten colleagues. We value best practices, such as clean coding, code reviews, automated tests, continuous integration (CI), and few-click deployments. As in a proper Agile environment, we work as a team, and we rely on good communication.

🛜About the RIPE NCC

The RIPE NCC is a not-for-profit organisation founded on the belief that the Internet should be governed openly, transparently and together with the wider Internet community. We are one of the oldest Internet organisations in Europe and are proud of our legacy.

Our strength is our staff. We bring together more than 180+ people from over 44 countries in our modern, vibrant office in the east wing of Amsterdam Central Station. Currently, we have a hybrid way of working and allow our staff to work from their homes and the office. Our official working language is English, but our colleagues speak more than 30 languages.

Our backgrounds are diverse, but our goal is the same: we work for the good of the Internet. Will you join us?

📋How to apply

If interested, please click the ‘Apply’ button and submit your CV and cover letter in English. Adding a cover letter is highly important and appreciated, our team read them carefully.

Not ready to apply yet? Then send me an email to openings@ripe.net and we can have an informal chat.

At the RIPE NCC, we are proud to serve our members and the RIPE community in 76 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. We celebrate unique perspectives and talents from different backgrounds and cultures. So if you're passionate about what you do and want to help shape the future of the Internet, apply now - we'd love to hear your story.

Please note that due to the nature of our activities, we will require successful candidates to follow a pre-employment screening (conducted by our partner Validata). This involves requesting a criminal record and education certificates.

MEET THE TEAM:

Curious about what it’s like to work at the RIPE NCC? Read our conversation with Eleonora Titarenko from the Software Engineering team:

👉 What do you love the most about working at the RIPE NCC?
What I love most about working at the company is the diversity and team atmosphere, coupled with the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the internet.

👉 How would you describe the atmosphere in your team?
Our team atmosphere is collaborative and dynamic. Everyone is genuinely supportive of each other, contributing to a positive environment where we can all grow professionally and personally.

👉 What do you love the most about your job?
As a software engineer, I love the process of turning ideas into reality. The satisfaction of solving complex problems and seeing my code make a tangible impact is unmatched. It’s both challenging and rewarding.

👉 What did you do in the last team outing?
For our last team outing, we embarked on a Robinson Crusoe-themed quest outdoors. It was an adventure-filled day where we tackled a series of challenges and puzzles inspired by the classic tale of survival and ingenuity. It was a day filled with solving mysteries, overcoming obstacles, laughter, and teamwork. We had a fantastic time connecting with nature and each other.