C++ & C# Backend Engineer, Kernel Drivers and Windows Internals

Hone gives gamers better FPS by cleaning up their PCs. We are looking for experienced C++ & C# Backend Engineer, Kernel Drivers and Windows Internals to join our fast-growing team. You'll have the opportunity to use cutting-edge tools and processes to build features that our users desperately need.

What You'll Do

• Build Windows performance tooling across kernel + user mode : C++ drivers (WDK/WDF) where needed, plus C# / C++ services, libraries, and CLIs for orchestration and UX.
• Develop & ship kernel drivers (KMDF/UMDF as appropriate): device interfaces, IOCTL design, safe memory handling, signing workflows, and clean install/update/uninstall behavior.
• Own HLK / Hardware Center readiness: build test plans, run HLK suites, triage failures, fix root causes, and prepare packages/attestation submissions for release-quality drivers.
• Profile & diagnose with ETW/xperf/WPA/PerfView, design experiments, and turn findings into code.
• Parse ETL and other telemetry, automate analyses, and surface actionable signals (frame pacing, CPU/GPU wait, DPC/ISR, I/O stalls).
• Interop across Win32/WMI/COM/PInvoke and driver comms: services, registry, scheduled tasks, policy-safe tuning, and robust user↔kernel communication boundaries.
• Validate via reproducible A/B tests and real-world game sessions; write crisp tech notes and docs other devs can act on.
• Occasionally RE (WinDbg, IDA, Ghidra) to clarify behavior, confirm hypotheses, or unblock a driver issue then get back to shipping.

Must-haves

• 5+ years building and shipping Windows applications/services in C# and C++/C.
• Practical experience with kernel driver development using the WDK (KMDF/WDF fundamentals), including IOCTLs, synchronization, and safe memory/lifetime management.
• Familiarity with driver signing and distribution (test signing, release signing/attestation concepts) and production install/update practices.
• Fluency with ETW/WPT: capturing and reading ETL, using WPA/xperf to explain "why it's slow" and "how we fix it".
• Strong, safe Win32 API familiarity and practical interop (P/Invoke, COM, registry, services, job objects).
• Ability to work autonomously, turn fuzzy goals into measurable improvements, and ship production-ready code fast.
• Fluent spoken and written English; you can turn an investigation into a one-pager with graphs and a patch.

Nice-to-haves

• Hands-on HLK / Hardware Center experience: running suites, diagnosing failures, packaging, and submission workflows.
• Comfort with kernel debugging and reverse engineering (WinDbg/IDA/WinDbg), driver verifier, crash dump analysis, and ETW stack interpretation.
• Familiarity with performance and gaming telemetry (PresentMon/CapFrameX-style metrics).
• Exposure to kernel concepts (IRQL, DPC/ISR, scheduler hints) and driver dev/WDK.
• Experience building around anti-cheat/AV constraints, avoiding false positives while doing legitimate system tuning (minimizing hooks, staying compliant, avoiding fragile techniques).
• Love for games, frame-time graphs, and squashing jitter out of a machine.

Why Hone?

Fully remote

Hone offers a fully remote work experience, allowing you to work from anywhere while staying connected with our diverse team.

Gaming Industry Impact

Your work will directly shape how thousands of gamers experience and improve their performance.

A fun and friendly work environment

We're a fun and friendly bunch, and we love gaming! You'll have the opportunity to get to know your team members through gaming sessions and build strong relationships. You don't know your teammate until you have killed them about 43 times, or achieved some winner-winner chicken dinners together!

If this sounds like the perfect opportunity for you, please apply now. We look forward to hearing from you!