Red Hat, a leading enterprise Linux and open source solutions provider, is experiencing a notable talent loss as David Hildenbrand, a prominent Linux kernel engineer, prepares to leave the company after a decade of service. Hildenbrand’s recent update to his maintainer information at kernel.org has signaled his departure from the company. The Linux kernel community has taken notice of this move, as Hildenbrand’s work has been instrumental in advancing several critical areas within the kernel, including memory management, virtualization, and VirtIO.
With over a decade at Red Hat, Hildenbrand has made significant contributions to the development of Linux kernel technologies. His experience spans over a decade, during which he has worked on QEMU/KVM virtualization, Linux kernel memory management, VirtIO, and related low-level technologies. In 2025 alone, he has authored or been cited in over 1,000 mainline Linux kernel patches, a testament to the breadth and depth of his work. As an upstream maintainer for core memory management code, including Get User Pages (GUP), kernel samepage merging (KSM), reverse mapping (RMAP), and transparent hugepage (THP), Hildenbrand has helped shape the evolution of the Linux kernel.
Hildenbrand’s roles have extended to reviewing critical code areas such as HugeTLB, s390 KVM, and memory management reclaim code. His extensive contributions to these areas have made him a respected figure within the Linux development community. While the specifics of his new role remain undisclosed, his departure highlights the ongoing challenges of retaining top talent in the open source software field. As the Linux kernel continues to evolve, the community will undoubtedly miss his contributions and expertise.