diff --git a/docs/design/README.md b/docs/design/README.md
index ad20cd7204..adcffd0196 100644
--- a/docs/design/README.md
+++ b/docs/design/README.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Kata Containers design documents:
 - [Metrics(Kata 2.0)](kata-2-0-metrics.md)
 - [Design for Kata Containers `Lazyload` ability with `nydus`](kata-nydus-design.md)
 - [Design for direct-assigned volume](direct-blk-device-assignment.md)
-
+- [Design for core-scheduling](core-scheduling.md)
 ---
 
 - [Design proposals](proposals)
diff --git a/docs/design/core-scheduling.md b/docs/design/core-scheduling.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7602e21cfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/design/core-scheduling.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Core scheduling
+
+Core scheduling is a Linux kernel feature that allows only trusted tasks to run concurrently on
+CPUs sharing compute resources (for example, hyper-threads on a core).
+
+Containerd versions >= 1.6.4 leverage this to treat all of the processes associated with a
+given pod or container to be a single group of trusted tasks. To indicate this should be carried
+out, containerd sets the `SCHED_CORE` environment variable for each shim it spawns. When this is
+set, the Kata Containers shim implementation uses the `prctl` syscall to create a new core scheduling
+domain for the shim process itself as well as future VMM processes it will start.
+
+For more details on the core scheduling feature, see the [Linux documentation](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/core-scheduling.html).
diff --git a/src/runtime/pkg/containerd-shim-v2/service.go b/src/runtime/pkg/containerd-shim-v2/service.go
index 72f3f14a04..27ebe19268 100644
--- a/src/runtime/pkg/containerd-shim-v2/service.go
+++ b/src/runtime/pkg/containerd-shim-v2/service.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	sysexec "os/exec"
+	goruntime "runtime"
 	"sync"
 	"syscall"
 	"time"
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/pkg/katautils"
 	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/pkg/katautils/katatrace"
 	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/pkg/oci"
+	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/pkg/utils"
 	vc "github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/virtcontainers"
 	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/virtcontainers/pkg/compatoci"
 	"github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime/virtcontainers/types"
@@ -234,9 +236,19 @@ func (s *service) StartShim(ctx context.Context, opts cdshim.StartOpts) (_ strin
 
 	cmd.ExtraFiles = append(cmd.ExtraFiles, f)
 
+	goruntime.LockOSThread()
+	if os.Getenv("SCHED_CORE") != "" {
+		if err := utils.Create(utils.ProcessGroup); err != nil {
+			return "", errors.Wrap(err, "enable sched core support")
+		}
+	}
+
 	if err := cmd.Start(); err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
+
+	goruntime.UnlockOSThread()
+
 	defer func() {
 		if retErr != nil {
 			cmd.Process.Kill()
diff --git a/src/runtime/pkg/utils/schedcore.go b/src/runtime/pkg/utils/schedcore.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c35fecef4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/pkg/utils/schedcore.go
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2022 Apple Inc.
+//
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+//
+
+package utils
+
+import (
+	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
+)
+
+// PidType is the type of provided pid value and how it should be treated
+type PidType int
+
+const (
+	pidTypePid            = 0
+	pidTypeThreadGroupId  = 1
+	pidTypeProcessGroupId = 2
+
+	// Pid affects the current pid
+	Pid PidType = pidTypePid
+	// ThreadGroup affects all threads in the group
+	ThreadGroup PidType = pidTypeThreadGroupId
+	// ProcessGroup affects all processes in the group
+	ProcessGroup PidType = pidTypeProcessGroupId
+)
+
+// Create a new sched core domain
+func Create(t PidType) error {
+	return unix.Prctl(unix.PR_SCHED_CORE, unix.PR_SCHED_CORE_CREATE, 0, uintptr(t), 0)
+}
+
+// ShareFrom shares the sched core domain from the provided pid
+func ShareFrom(pid uint64, t PidType) error {
+	return unix.Prctl(unix.PR_SCHED_CORE, unix.PR_SCHED_CORE_SHARE_FROM, uintptr(pid), uintptr(t), 0)
+}