Senior Engineering Manager- Ubuntu at Canonical

Senior Engineering Manager - Ubuntu

Location: Home based - Worldwide (fully remote)

Role overview

Canonical is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the Foundations engineering team that delivers core components of Ubuntu — system startup, compilers, language runtimes and toolchains, networking and storage configuration and management. This pivotal, highly technical leadership role combines hands-on engineering, people management and cross-functional strategy to drive Ubuntu’s platform quality, performance and long-term roadmap.

The role entails

• Lead, grow and mentor a distributed team of engineers, setting high expectations for engineering quality and delivery.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership, including planning, estimation and execution oversight across the product area.
• Collaborate with product management and cross-functional leaders to define vision, strategy and roadmaps for Ubuntu foundations.
• Drive adoption of modern software development practices, tooling and organizational processes to improve delivery and product quality.
• Represent the team externally and internally, engaging with open source communities, partners and stakeholders to influence architecture and upstream contributions.
• Ensure the team delivers robust, production-grade solutions for system-level components and platform services.
• Organise and participate in twice-yearly in-person sprints to align strategy, plan roadmaps and accelerate delivery.

What we are looking for in you

We are seeking a senior engineering leader with deep Linux platform experience, excellent people management skills and a track record of delivering foundational system software.

• Extensive experience working with Linux distributions and packaging technologies (deb, rpm or similar).
• Demonstrable experience managing or leading software engineering teams, with strong people development skills.
• High-quality engineering knowledge in one or more of: Linux system architecture, boot process, compilers or toolchains (GCC/Java/Golang/Rust/Python), networking and storage management.
• Proven ability to engage with and contribute to open source communities and upstream projects.
• Strong communication skills in English, able to influence senior stakeholders and collaborate across distributed teams.
• Well organised, able to prioritise effectively and deliver against strategic goals and schedules.
• Willingness to travel for company sprints and events (typically twice yearly).

Preferred experience

• Experience with toolchains, language runtimes, packaging and low-level system services.
• Background in kernel, boot, runtime or platform engineering and familiarity with architectures such as ARM or RISC-V.
• Track record of improving engineering processes, testing, CI/CD and release practices in distributed teams.

What we offer colleagues

Canonical shapes compensation based on geography, experience and performance. In addition to base pay, eligible colleagues may receive a performance-driven bonus. We provide a benefits package adapted to local markets and a remote-first working culture with regular in-person sprints.

• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Twice-yearly in-person team sprints and company retreats.
• Annual compensation review, recognition rewards and annual holiday leave.
• Maternity and paternity leave and Employee Assistance Programme.

About Canonical

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, a leading open-source platform used across cloud, AI, IoT and enterprise initiatives. We are a founder-led, profitable, globally distributed organisation that partners with cloud and silicon providers and contributes to major open source ecosystems. Working at Canonical means building software that impacts millions of users worldwide.

Application notes

Please indicate your relevant experience, examples of platform work or open source contributions, and your location when applying. Teams are globally distributed and will align you to the product area that best matches your expertise.

Requisition ID: 847

How to apply

Apply via Canonical's careers site for this role: https://canonical.com/careers/3939050

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