Ubuntu Engineering Lead

Overview

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office based roles.

Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution. The company is founder led, profitable and growing. We are hiring engineering leaders to work across the breadth of our Ubuntu Engineering organisation — leaders who care deeply for quality, performance and resilience in software, and have a proven track record for building, nurturing and developing high performing engineering teams.

Our teams integrate the freshest open source software, provide robust upgrade paths and engineer the future of Ubuntu.

We have remote roles open in every time zone.

• Accountable for technical roadmap and responsible for team: help them grow as engineers, do important and satisfying work, and have a great time while doing it.
• Lead, challenge, and develop strong engineers; positively influence culture; facilitate technical delivery; work with team on strategy and execution.
• Lead and build high quality, performant software in Rust, Go and Python.
• Design, develop and ship high-quality, performant software; demonstrate sound engineering principles through architecture, development and code reviews.
• Take responsibility for planning, estimation and execution.
• Work with product management to define vision and strategy for Ubuntu.
• Set expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders.
• Offer coaching, mentoring, technical feedback and hands-on career development.
• Contribute to upstream and neighboring open source projects.
• Optimize the distribution for performance, reliability, and security.
• Debug complex system-level issues and deliver robust solutions.
• Author and improve technical and community documentation.

• An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about alternative path.
• Ability to drive and deliver technical work streams above and beyond expectations.
• Lead and coach others to deliver exceptional engineering work.
• A demonstrated passion for open source software.
• Significant experience with Rust, Go, Python, Flutter or C/C++.
• Professional written and spoken English.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments.
• Ability to travel twice a year for company events up to two weeks each.

• Experience contributing to or leading open source projects.
• Experience with Linux distributions/distribution engineering.
• Experience with software packaging and distribution mechanisms.
• Performance or Security Engineering experience.

• 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 at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open source projects and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company.

We expect excellence — to succeed we need to be the best at what we do. Canonical has been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer. We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.