Observability Engineering Manager

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. With 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries, we pioneer global distributed collaboration and focus on the world’s best suite of open source observability tools.

We are hiring an Observability Engineering Manager to lead the development of our distributed tracing and service mesh products within the Observability group. As a manager, you will be a disciplined coder who reviews and leads both architecture and code, judges character, sets expectations, and holds colleagues accountable. You will build an easy‑to‑deploy observability stack on Kubernetes, deliver deep integration and automation for metrics, logging, telemetry, alerting, tracing, and profiling, and contribute to the open‑source community.

This role can be home‑based in the EMEA or Americas regions.

• Manage a distributed team of engineers and its observability portfolio
• Organize and lead the team’s processes to achieve objectives
• Conduct one‑on‑one meetings with team members
• Identify and measure team health indicators
• Interact with a vibrant community
• Review code produced by other engineers
• Attend conferences to represent Canonical and its Observability Stack

• An exceptional academic track record from high school and university
• Proven professional experience in software delivery
• Professional software development experience, preferably in open source
• Willingness to travel up to four times a year for internal events
• Professional written and spoken English
• Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred)
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Passion, thoughtfulness, and self‑motivation
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Result‑oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments

• Experience as an engineering manager building high‑performance teams
• Professional Python development experience
• Working knowledge of Go
• Open source contribution experience
• Interest and experience with container technologies
• Understanding of observability and monitoring importance
• Experience designing and implementing observability solutions

• 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
• Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
• 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, we change the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do.

Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004.

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.