Distributed Systems Software Engineer, Python / Go at Canonical

Distributed Systems Software Engineer, Python / Go

Location: Home based - Worldwide (fully remote)

Overview

Canonical is hiring a Distributed Systems Software Engineer to build resilient test automation, CI pipelines and validation infrastructure for cloud orchestration and multi‑cloud deployments. You will join the Distributed Systems testing team to design, implement and operate automated testing approaches that ensure the reliability, performance and resilience of Canonical products (Juju, Terraform, OpenStack, Kubernetes and related cloud-native stacks) across diverse environments from bare metal to public cloud.

What your day will look like

• Create and operate automated testing infrastructure and frameworks for validating reliability, performance and resilience of cloud orchestration tools and applications.
• Design, enhance and run CI pipelines that drive Canonical’s cloud integration testing and reporting across multiple clouds and platforms.
• Deploy, manage and debug highly distributed systems used for testbeds and validation, and enable engineering teams to develop with confidence by providing accessible testing tooling.
• Work on integrations and test workflows for products such as Kubeflow, Juju and Terraform; expand deployment capabilities to new cloud providers.
• Monitor and report automated test results, build dashboards and analytics to measure quality, and feed findings back to engineering and product teams.
• Collect and analyse large multidimensional datasets and operate data platforms (key-value stores, relational/document databases, event buses) to support test telemetry and analysis.
• Contribute to initiatives developing AI/ML pipelines for automated analysis of test outcomes and anomaly detection.
• Collaborate daily with a globally distributed team and participate in occasional international travel (typically 2–4 weeks per year) for sprints and events.

What we are looking for in you

We seek engineers with strong software craftsmanship, a deep sense of quality engineering and practical experience building distributed systems and CI tooling.

• Solid experience developing in Python or Golang and strong object‑oriented development skills.
• Practical experience deploying and debugging distributed systems and cloud orchestration stacks.
• Working knowledge of continuous integration tools (Jenkins, CircleCI, GitHub CI) and experience building CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with cloud technologies and orchestration such as OpenStack, Kubernetes, Terraform and public clouds (AWS, GCE, Azure).
• Good understanding of Linux system architecture and networking fundamentals.
• Experience collecting, storing and analysing test telemetry and large multidimensional datasets; familiarity with databases, key-value stores or event buses.
• Capability to develop production-grade web applications and observability tooling to support testing and reporting.
• Strong capacity for abstract thinking, troubleshooting, and driving engineering improvements across teams.

Additional skills that you might also bring

• Experience with AI/ML pipelines, automated test result analysis or building anomaly detection systems.
• Exposure to operating data platforms at scale, event-driven architectures and metrics pipelines.
• Prior work with Juju, Kubeflow or other Canonical cloud products, or contributions to upstream open source projects.
• Knowledge of container tooling and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud provider APIs.

What we offer you

Canonical offers a remote-first working environment, competitive compensation adjusted by location and a benefits package tailored to local markets. We support continual learning and provide opportunities to work on impactful open source projects used by millions.

• Fully remote role with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Annual compensation review, recognition rewards, annual holiday leave and parental leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme and wellbeing support; travel opportunities and Priority Pass for long-haul events.

How to apply

Apply via Canonical's careers site for this role: https://canonical.com/careers/2969042

Requisition ID: 504

About Canonical

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu — a leading open-source platform for cloud, AI, IoT and enterprise. We are a globally distributed, founder-led organisation that partners with cloud and silicon providers and contributes to major open source ecosystems.