Graduate Software Engineer, Source and Linux, Ubuntu

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 2025 and 2026 Graduate Software Engineers into engineering teams around the world. As a global platform company we offer a wide range of software engineering challenges, in both open source products and commercial business systems. We have teams that work in a variety of languages, typically Python, Golang, Rust, C/C++, JavaScript and of course... Bash. We work from the very lowest levels of the Linux system – BIOS and boot loaders, firmware, kernel and drivers, all the way up to desktop applications and containers.

We work on tiny devices like the Raspberry Pi and new RISC-V boards, all the way up to supercomputers, clouds and Kubernetes clusters. We work on compilers and tool chains, and we work on security, cryptography, performance and documentation. Some of our teams focus on packaging thousands of pieces of software, others focus on deep contributions to a single body of code.

If you are excited about the potential that open source has for humanity and the enterprise, you have outstanding results in your academic career, and you are excited to contribute to the open source stack, this is the best way to apply to Canonical. We will work with you to identify teams and projects that would be interesting and a good fit for your skills and motivations.

The process is highly competitive, it will require effort and excellence to succeed if you apply here.

This is a globally remote role.

• Shaping the roadmap for your product at global sprints every six months
• Focusing on design and user experience, even for developer tooling and command line apps
• Writing high quality, resilient and performant code, potentially serving millions of demanding daily users
• Working towards mastery of key programming languages and Linux system knowledge
• Engaging with users and the open source community through code reviews and issue trackers
• Responding to customer issues as a priority, develop an understanding of enterprise requirements
• Developing skills and awareness of security in software design and implementation

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics or another STEM discipline with programming courses
• Confidence to get started and deliver high quality code in one of Python, Rust, C/C++, Golang, JavaScript or Java
• Experience with Ubuntu or another Linux distribution
• Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Result-oriented and organized, with the drive to meet commitments
• Personal projects in technology and software engineering beyond the curriculum
• Professional written and spoken English
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Personal responsibility and accountability
• Thoughtfulness, self-awareness and the ability to reflect and develop
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long

• Upstream open source contributions
• Packaging and Linux distribution contributions - Debian, Fedora, Arch, Nix or another
• Leadership and organization skills
• Presentation and writing skills
• Business and commercial interests

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 recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. 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
• 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…