From the listing
About the role
Canonical is hiring engineering leaders across its Ubuntu Engineering organization who care deeply for quality, performance and resilience in software. This leadership track includes roles for Managers and Senior Managers, who are expected to stay technical and close to the code.
Ubuntu is the world’s most deployed open source operating system, enabling innovation for millions of users across the globe. The four key teams that ship Ubuntu are Foundations, Server, Desktop and Debcrafters.
Our teams integrate the freshest open source software, provide robust upgrade paths and engineer the future of Ubuntu. At Canonical, you will have the opportunity to engage with and contribute to the broader open source community.
What you'll do
- Be accountable for your technical roadmap and help your team grow as engineers, do important and satisfying work, and have a great time while doing it.
- Lead, challenge and develop strong engineers, positively influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution.
- Lead teams in elevating the Linux developer and user experience.
- Design, build and ship high quality, performant software in Rust, Go and Python.
- Demonstrate sound engineering principles through architecture, development and code reviews.
- Take responsibility for planning, estimation and execution.
- Work with product management to define the 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.
- Author and improve technical and community documentation.
What they're looking for
- Technical leadership experience and a background in software engineering.
- A proven track record for building, nurturing and developing high performing engineering teams.
- An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path.
- Ability to drive and deliver technical work streams going 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.
Nice to have
- Experience managing technical teams.
- 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.
Benefits, as listed
The hot takeJeff's read on Canonical
Canonical is a bit tricky for me to review for a few reasons:
Their Glassdoor reviews have dropped down to 3.1 (March 25, 2026), right at my threshold. I'd want to see this start trending in the correct direction in order to consider them for inclusion again.
I like they they have yearly sprints in cool locations like Cape Town, Madrid, and London.
I like that hire-from-anywhere/work-from-anywhere roles are clearly labeled on the job listings as "worldwide."
I'd like to read more about how they feel about their employees traveling as a digital nomad, or being location-independent in general.
I'd like to see more details about the perks they do or don't offer employees, though I suspect they vary by hiring region.
Please get back to me, because I would like to include you again, but need a few more details to do so.