About this role.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is hiring an Engineering Lead to manage teams responsible for Ubuntu's core components including foundations, server, desktop, and debcrafting. The role involves staying technical while leading engineers, defining roadmaps, and contributing to open source. The position is fully remote with global collaboration and occasional in-person meetings. Ideal candidates have strong software engineering and technical leadership experience, and are passionate about open source and Linux.
Role DNA
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Job Complexity
4/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
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Cover letter sample
Dear Hiring Manager,
I am excited to apply for the Ubuntu Engineering Lead position at Canonical. With a strong background in Linux systems and open source software, combined with proven experience leading distributed engineering teams, I am confident in my ability to drive quality and innovation across Ubuntu. My technical expertise in Python, Go, and Rust, along with a passion for mentoring engineers, aligns well with the responsibilities outlined. I look forward to contributing to the future of Ubuntu and joining Canonical's globally distributed team.
Sample interview questions
I would focus on clear communication, regular one-on-ones, and setting explicit goals. I'd foster a culture of code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing. For remote teams, asynchronous collaboration tools and scheduled video calls are key to maintaining cohesion and trust.
In a previous role, we faced pressure to ship new features but had accumulating technical debt. I worked with the team to prioritize debt reduction by allocating 20% of each sprint to refactoring. This improved developer velocity and reduced bugs, which ultimately accelerated feature delivery.
I allocate time for code reviews, contribute to design documents, and occasionally pair with engineers on complex tasks. I also dedicate personal time to learning new technologies relevant to our stack, ensuring I can lead by example and make informed technical decisions.
I led a project to improve the Linux kernel's scheduler for better performance on ARM servers. My team submitted patches, engaged with the upstream community, and after several months of collaboration, our changes were merged. This improved performance for a major cloud provider.
I would establish regular sync meetings with product managers to discuss priorities and technical feasibility. I'd also involve the team early in planning, encouraging them to propose solutions that align with product goals. Clear documentation and transparent trade-off discussions are essential for alignment.
Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very 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 engineering leaders to work across the breadth of our Ubuntu Engineering organisation – leaders who care deeply for quality, performance and resilience in software, and have a proven track record for building, nurturing and developing high performing engineering teams.
This leadership track includes roles for managers and Senior+ engineers alike. At Canonical, managers are expected to stay technical and close to the code, and our Senior+ engineers lead and develop software projects, as well as the processes and people around them.
Our teams integrate the freshest open source software, provide robust upgrade paths and engineer the future of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is not just the world’s most deployed open source operating system, it’s a platform that enables innovation for millions of users across the globe. Our community represents the full breadth of the developer experience; from students, hobbyists and freelancers to high performance engineering and creative teams in corporate and academic environments.
The four key teams that ship Ubuntu are the
- Foundations: maintaining foundational software: architectures, package managers, compilers, toolchains, bootloaders, filesystems and core utilities
- Server: leading the design, evolution and future of our Ubuntu Server distribution
- Desktop: driving Ubuntu Desktop, our future immutable desktop: Ubuntu Core Desktop, WSL, gaming technology, and a suite of modern applications for the desktop crafted with Flutter
- Debcrafters: a new team responsible for the forward movement, maintenance and overall health of the Ubuntu archive: one of the most abundant repositories of open source software available today
You’ll be accountable for your technical roadmap, and responsible for your team: helping them grow as engineers, do important and satisfying work, and have a great time while doing it. Technical leadership experience and a background in software engineering are necessary prerequisites for this role. You will be expected to lead, challenge, and develop strong engineers, positively influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution
At Canonical, you will have the opportunity to engage with and contribute to the broader open source community. We’re looking for individuals who can help build a thriving community and contribute with enthusiasm and precision to a broad range of technologies
Location: We have remote roles open in every time zone.
The role entails
Based on the first round of interviews, we identify specific teams where you might be an excellent fit and conduct second-round interviews with those teams. Our leads are:
- Leading their teams in elevating the Linux developer and user experience
- Designing, building and shipping high quality, performant software in Rust, Go and Python
- Demonstrating sound engineering principles through architecture, development and code reviews
- Taking responsibility for planning, estimation and execution
- Working with product management to define the vision and strategy for Ubuntu
- Setting expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders
- Offering coaching, mentoring, technical feedback and hands-on career development
- Contributing to upstream and neighboring open source projects
- Optimizing the distribution for performance, reliability, and security
- Debugging complex system-level issues and delivering robust solutions
- Authoring and improving technical and community documentation
What we are looking for in you
- 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 skills
- 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
What we offer you
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. 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
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
- Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events
About Canonical
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 and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. 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. Canonical has been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.
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.
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
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