Senior Security Operations Engineer

The Canonical Security Operations team is hiring for a Senior or Staff engineer. The Security Operations team is responsible for designing, building, and operating a world-class Security Operations Center, and the successful candidate will provide leadership, mentorship, expertise, and outstanding individual contributions towards those ends.

This role involves aspects of:

• Traditional SOC duties - security monitoring, threat hunting, and response.
• Security engineering - assessing and protecting Canonical platforms and products.
• Software engineering - building custom tools and platforms.
• Site reliability engineering - deploying, maintaining, and automating security tools.

We are looking for individuals with engineering and security experience, as well as a history of remarkable achievement. Senior security operations personnel with engineering experience and senior developers with security experience are equally well-suited to this role.

Beyond securing Canonical’s digital estate, this position represents a unique opportunity to contribute to the open source ecosystem. Team members may present at industry conferences, share threat intelligence with the wider community, or publish open source security software.

Junior positions are also available for less-experienced individuals with a compelling academic or professional background.

• Provide operational and engineering leadership.
• Implement and evolve Canonical’s Security Operations Center.
• Design and develop security software and platforms.
• Monitor for, identify, respond to, and remediate security incidents.
• Assess and improve Canonical’s security controls.
• Mentor early-career Security Operations engineers.
• Plan and deliver work within Canonical's agile engineering framework.
• Contribute to open source security.
• Publish blog posts, whitepapers and conference presentations.

• An exceptional academic track record.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path.
• 10+ years of relevant professional experience
• Professional cybersecurity experience, preferably working or leading a Security Operations Center.
• Professional engineering experience.
• An eagerness to contribute to open source security.
• Proficiency in common scripting languages, such as Python and Bash.
• Knowledge of Git, Git Ops, Infrastructure-as-Code, and common orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes)

• Familiarity with security frameworks such as the NIST CSF, CIS CSC, and ISO 27001
• Knowledge of security architecture and market-leading security tools.
• Experience in a security operations team or a security operations center.
• Experience in offensive or defensive security teams with hands‑on ability.
• Experience with advanced persistent threats.
• Proficiency in additional programming languages, such as Golang.

We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognise outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus. We provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.

• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
• Annual compensation review
• Recognition rewards
• Annual holiday leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm…