Vaishali Thakkar

CEO

Berlin, Germany10 yrs 2 mos experience

Key Highlights

Over a decade of experience in the kernel community
Frequent speaker at major tech conferences
Expertise in Confidential Computing and Open Source

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Backend-heavy Infrastructure Engineer with a focus on Open Source technologies.

Contact

vthakkar1994@gmail.com LinkedIn

Skills

Core Skills

Confidential ComputingLinux KernelXenEbpfGolangStorageLeadershipEmbedded SystemsConference SpeakingMentoringSecurity

Other Skills

AMD architectureARM ArchitectureAlgorithmsAndroid DevelopmentCC (Programming Language)C languageC++Cross-team CollaborationData StructuresGitHTML 5LaTeXMySQLOpen Source

About

In my current role, I engage with upstream communities and collaborate with SUSE partners on technical solutions. I've been active in the kernel community for over a decade and am a frequent speaker at conferences such as KVM Forum, Linux Plumbers Conference, FOSDEM, Kernel Recipes, Open Source Summit(previously LinuxCon) etc. If you’re excited about Open Source, Confidential Computing, or just making tech/open source a more human place, let’s connect. ☕️ For the conference, podcast or media collaborations, please use the email on my website. Mastodon: @vaishali@hachyderm.io Website: https://vaishalithakkar.in/

Experience

Suse

Confidential Computing Expert

Mar 2025 – Present · 1 yr · Germany · Remote

Part of the Kernel Core team. Working on kvm, coconut-svsm and all things related to confidential computing.

LeadershipC (Programming Language)Rust (Programming Language)Conference SpeakingStrategic PartnershipsConfidential Computing+2

Vates - xen orchestra/xcp-ng

Senior Kernel/Hypervisor Engineer

Sep 2023 – Mar 2025 · 1 yr 6 mos · Germany · Remote

Linux kernel and Xen development for XCP-NG. Mainly worked on the enablement of AMD-SEV in Xen.
Gave a talk at Xen Summit 2024

CXenLinux KernelSEVConference SpeakingAMD architecture+1

Ebpf summit

Program Commitee Member

Jul 2022 – Aug 2022 · 1 mo

This was a volunteer position.
Work included: Reviewing and selecting talks for the eBPF Summit, 2022

Polar signals

Senior Software Engineer

Apr 2022 – Jul 2023 · 1 yr 3 mos · Germany · Remote

eBPF, libbpfgo, continuous profiling, ex-maintainer of parca-agent
Gave talks at Linux Plumbers Conference 2022, FOSDEM 2023 (2 talks)

CGolangprofilingConference SpeakingeBPF

Ionos

Linux Software Engineer

Jan 2021 – Apr 2022 · 1 yr 3 mos · Berlin, Germany · Remote

Worked in a platform storage team on the kernel[RDMA, RTRS, RNBD etc] stuff and lower level libraries for the kernel modules

CLinux KernelStorage

Self employed

Freelance Linux Kernel Engineer

Mar 2018 – Jan 2021 · 2 yrs 10 mos · India · Remote

Worked on an open source firmware testing project [coreboot, uroot, linuxboot etc] with a client
Worked with Linaro's Qualcomm Landing Team as a full-time contractor for qcs404 SoC.
Worked with bunch of clients as a Linux Kernel consultant on short projects covering Device Tree, I2C Display drivers, mmap, embedded rust etc.
Organized Linux kernel workshops at a bunch of universities in India
Organized a BoF/Devroom at Devconf IN: https://devconfin2018.sched.com/event/FA7V/linux-kernel-bof
Moderated a panel at OSS, 2019: https://osseu19.sched.com/event/TPHB/panel-outreachy-linux-kernel-internship-report-vaishali-thakkar-independent

Linux KernelC languageEmbedded SystemsARM Architecture

Outreachy

Linux Kernel Coordinator

Feb 2018 – Aug 2021 · 3 yrs 6 mos

This was a volunteer position.
I handled Linux kernel community projects for Outreachy. My work included providing application support for Linux Kernel applicants, reviewing patches during the application period, collaborating with mentors for the Linux Kernel projects, coaching/helping interns with advancing their careers and being a communication bridge between mentors, interns and organizers of the program. I also helped first-time mentors from the kernel community in navigating the program as well as in providing guidance to succeed in the mentorship.

LeadershipMentoring

Rails girls summer of code

Co Organizer

Jun 2016 – Nov 2018 · 2 yrs 5 mos · Remote

I was associated with RGSoC since 2016 and worked on a bunch of things as a volunteer/paid organizer (employed by Travis Foundation) since then.
About RGSoC:
Rails Girls Summer of Code was a 3 months global scholarship that sponsored women and non-binary people to contribute full-time/part-time to Open Source Projects with the help of coaches and mentors. Since 2013, RGSoC trained more than 160 students and created a community of over 800 students, coaches, mentors, supervisors and organizers.

Team ManagementLeadership

Google summer of code

Linux Foundation Mentor

Apr 2016 – Aug 2016 · 4 mos · Remote

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/archive/2016/projects/5296785597661184
http://linuxtesting.org/16-08-2016

Linux KernelMentoringC (Programming Language)

Oracle

Associate Linux Kernel engineer

Nov 2015 – Feb 2018 · 2 yrs 3 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · Remote

Worked on mainline kernel's memory management and security related issues. Wrote Coccinelle scripts to find security issues and worked on KSPP project for SPARC.
Gave talks at Linuxcon Japan 2016, LinuxCon Europe 2016, FOSSASIA 2017 and FrosCon 2017.

CLinux KernelConference Speaking