System Software Engineer - GCC​/LLVM compiler, tooling, and ecosystem

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 building a team to focus on the modern C and C++ programming language and their ecosystem on Ubuntu. The team will deliver the best possible GCC and LLVM runtimes, developer experience and supporting tooling in Ubuntu, ensuring that the cutting edge of modern programming languages innovation is available to Ubuntu users. This role provides a foundation for future inventions and open source communities.

This is an exciting opportunity for a software engineer with a strong passion for compilers, runtimes and tool chains. You will have excellent competencies in modern C/C++, Linux distributions, software architectures and open source software. You will work with the best and brightest people in open source technology at Canonical to help make Ubuntu the best operating system to develop and run C/C++ applications in the cloud, in datacenters, in containers and directly on the operating system, anywhere Ubuntu can run.

Part of the Ubuntu Foundations team, you will work on one of the most critical tool chains involved in the making of Ubuntu and the pillars of the modern software ecosystem. You will leverage your competencies and experience in C, C++ to make Ubuntu the best platform to develop, distribute and consume software built with GCC and LLVM. You will be passionate about the future of C, C++ and Ubuntu, mindful of the dynamics of the open‑source ecosystem, and equally aware of the needs of large but innovative organizations.

You will drive the best in class integration in Ubuntu from desktop to cloud in a secure, reliable, performing, efficient and future‑proof manner.

You will discuss design with other team members, mentor less senior engineers, and participate in code reviews and design reviews. You will also work with other teams to ensure architecture decisions improve the overall performance and experience of Ubuntu. Your role as part of the Ubuntu Foundations team will impact every aspect of Ubuntu from Desktop, Server, Ubuntu Core and also cloud images.

Location:

This role will be based remotely in the AMERICAS region.

• Collaborate proactively with a distributed team
• Select, integrate and package best‑of‑breed tooling with Ubuntu to improve developer and operator experience with GCC and LLVM
• Write high‑quality code to create new features
• Debug issues and produce high‑quality code to fix them
• Review code produced by other engineers
• Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions
• Work from home with global travel 2 to 4 weeks a year for internal and external events

• You have relevant GCC or LLVM experience, ideally in the world of cloud‑native software and Linux
• You have experience in packaging software for Debian and Ubuntu
• You are a long‑time Linux user
• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
• You love technology and working with brilliant people
• You are passionate, curious, flexible, articulate, and accountable
• You value soft skills and are passionate, enterprising, thoughtful, and self‑motivated
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long

• Experience with Linux distributions and distribution engineering
• Experience with software packaging and distribution mechanisms
• Understanding of build systems…