About this role.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is seeking a Chief Revenue Officer to lead global revenue generation efforts, including enterprise sales, sales development, partners, channels, alliances, customer success, and field engineering. This executive role reports directly to the CEO and focuses on strategic go-to-market planning, operational execution, and data-driven decision-making. The ideal candidate is passionate about open source and capable of scaling revenue across a distributed, global organization. The role requires a blend of inspirational leadership and rigorous operational management to drive sustainable growth in the enterprise software market.
Role DNA
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5/5Autonomy Level
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Cover letter sample
Dear Hiring Committee,
I am writing to express my strong interest in the Chief Revenue Officer position at Canonical. With a proven track record of scaling revenue operations for global technology companies, I am excited about the opportunity to lead Canonical's go-to-market strategies and drive growth in the open source enterprise market. My experience in building and leading high-performing sales, partnerships, and customer success teams aligns seamlessly with the requirements of this role.
I am particularly drawn to Canonical's mission of democratizing open source software and its global, remote-first culture. I have successfully navigated complex B2B sales cycles, forged strategic alliances with major cloud and silicon providers, and implemented data-driven processes to optimize revenue performance. I thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments and am committed to fostering leadership and operational excellence.
I look forward to the possibility of contributing to Canonical's ambitious vision and would love to discuss how my leadership can drive your continued success.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Sample interview questions
I would start by analyzing the market segments where open source adoption is accelerating, such as cloud, AI, and IoT. Then I would prioritize sectors based on Canonical's unique value proposition and competitive landscape. I would engage with key customers and partners to understand pain points, and design a tailored sales motion with clear metrics. I would also align hiring and resource allocation to the highest-opportunity areas, while fostering cross-team collaboration to ensure execution.
In my previous role, I led a sales organization across 20+ countries. I established clear communication norms, regular virtual check-ins, and transparent performance dashboards. I also implemented quarterly in-person summits to build cohesion and alignment. To drive accountability, I set cascading targets and emphasize a data-driven culture. I believe in empowering managers and providing them with digital collaboration tools, while celebrating wins publicly and ensuring consistent recognition.
Key metrics include Customer Acquisition Cost, Lifetime Value, sales cycle length, win rate, and pipeline coverage. I also monitor cohort-based retention and expansion revenue. I use these metrics to identify bottlenecks in the sales process, optimize resource allocation, and adjust forecasts. Monthly business reviews with teams focus on leading indicators and corrective actions. For example, if win rates drop at the negotiation stage, I would provide targeted coaching or adjust pricing strategies.
I would take an active executive sponsor role, engaging with the customer's C-level leadership to understand their business objectives and establish trust. I would align Canonical's internal cross-functional teams, including product, legal, and support, to ensure we deliver a comprehensive solution. I would also work closely with the sales lead to craft a proposal that demonstrates tangible ROI and mitigate any concerns about open source support or security. My goal would be to build a long-term partnership, not just close a one-time deal.
I would embed the mission of making open source ubiquitous into the sales and partner narratives. I would involve team members in crafting the go-to-market story and encourage them to share customer success stories that highlight the impact of open source. Regular 'all-hands' revenue meetings would include mission-driven case studies. I would also encourage continuous learning about open source technologies, and align incentives not only to financial targets but also to customer satisfaction and contribution to the ecosystem.
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 1000+ colleagues in 70+ countries and very few roles based in offices. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.
Our business opportunity is significant; we can deliver both infrastructure and business applications to the enterprise market. As companies refresh their data centers, our goal is to be the platform for cloud and apps. As they re-architect their business applications to embrace open source, our goal is to deliver the majority of their databases, analytics, messaging, publishing, identity, security, workflow… everything that is open source. We are committed to do that at the most efficient price points possible to drive down the total cost of IT, but this is nevertheless a significant global market, and our ambition is to be counted among the most valued software suppliers to the Global 10,000.
The company is founder led, profitable and growing. We are hiring a Chief Revenue Officer, to lead our enterprise sales, sales development, partner, channel, alliance, customer success and field engineering teams. This position will report to the CEO and collaborate with the most senior leaders of Canonical to drive sustainable growth. Success in this role depends on both operational and inspirational leadership. We see the role as program, process and metric oriented, with leadership and charisma being necessary but not sufficient. It is not itself a sales position so much as one that demands astute planning and tactical operations combined with leadership, rigor and insight into the global dynamics and drivers of enterprise software selection and procurement today.
Perhaps unusually we are looking for a leader who is insightful and passionate about the impact of open source in the world.
Across every category of compute – from the very lowest-level microcontroller to the fastest CPU’s and GPUs, from the biggest cloud infrastructure to the tiniest devices, we see open source growing in both share and reputation. The same is true in every category of business and scientific application. Our opportunity is to deliver the majority of that software globally. Our mission is to do that efficiently, at low cost, in a way that accelerates progress and preserves a level playing field in silicon and cloud. We work closely with both silicon and cloud providers to maximise performance and align with their differentiated offerings. We work to build and sustain trust as the best way for their customers to get the widest range of open source, and the best of their infrastructure and compute capability. As a result, we are growing mind share and market share. This is a tremendous responsibility, but it is also an extraordinary value proposition.
As Chief Revenue Officer you will be accountable for:
- Go-to-market strategy – prioritize sectors and markets, identify organisational gaps and lead hiring to close them
- Planning – challenge individual teams to develop appropriate, ambitious but sustainable execution plans and metrics with cascading goals and targets
- Execution – review relevant data and correct course where needed on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis
- Sponsorship – support leaders to close large ($10M+ ARR) deals with global-10k enterprises and large, complex, global tech sector partners
- Insight – capture and share patterns, issues, and insights from customers and partners to broaden commercial awareness within Canonical
- Staffing – supervise the Canonical recruitment, selection and onboarding processes in your organisation
- Productivity – design and lead career and skills development together with continuous improvement in your organisation
- Culture – select for, and invest in, transparent communications, accountability trust, and the work ethic needed for success
- Inspirational leadership – demonstrate and cultivate passion for Canonical’s mission, for customers and the market
The successful candidate will lead our revenue organisation, consisting of:
Direct enterprise sales
The VP Enterprise Sales will report to the CRO.
- Set high expectations of sales ability, readiness, performance and results
- Hire sales leaders, and set expectations for hiring effectiveness and results in the org
- Work with sales leaders to build annual targets and plans by region, sector and product
- Ensure accurate reporting and status on prospects and opportunities
- Review progress, metrics and results on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis
- Lead for high quality customer engagement and commitment to customer delight
Alliances, channels and partnerships:
Our VP Alliances will report to the CRO. This lead drives our strategy and execution in regard to:
- ISVs who embed Ubuntu and Canonical open source
- IHVs (Dell, HP, Lenovo etc) who certify and preinstall Ubuntu and deliver solutions
- Silicon providers (Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Mediatek etc) who optimise open source for their new offerings
- Cloud partners and customers who build ecosystems, products and communities based on Ubuntu
- VAR, GSI and distribution partnerships
Sector go-to-market:
Currently, sector GTM leads report to the VP Alliances, but the overall sector strategy and execution will be a CRO responsibility and the organisation structure will be determined by them. We are currently building out expertise and leadership in the telco, finance, automotive, energy, retail and health sectors; we expect to expand sector specific investments significantly to speak directly to customer need and trends.
Field engineering:
Our VP Field Engineering will report to the CRO. Our field engineering organisation is more than a traditional pre-sales or solution architect team, they are expert implementers with a commitment to deliver what they themselves promise. They have served as an effective way to accelerate customer adoption and confidence as Ubuntu and our open source solutions displace incumbent providers.
Customer success:
Our Head of Customer Success will report to the CRO. This is a new organisation but has already made significant progress in establishing processes and relationships, we expect to grow this capability as we expand our portfolio and move deeper into solution sales.
Potentially, revenue operations (“sales ops”):
Our Head of Revenue Operations will report to either the COO or the CRO. In this organisation we:
- Ensure correct reporting of pipeline and progress
- Ensure contracting processes and terms meet agreed standards
- Agree variances through commercial reviews with company leadership
- Recognise and reward salespeople and leaders with MBO goals and compensation plans
Required experience:
- University degree, preferably in CS or STEM with additional business disciplines or degrees
- Progressive operational and leadership experience in high growth, recurring revenue, and global technology firm
- Experience leading a sales, partnership or field engineering organization to maturity and world class performance
- Experience and deep insights into the enterprise software and infrastructure markets
Additional skills and experience we value
- Software engineering and architecture experience or skills
- Software industry insights on trends, strategy and competition
- Insight into open source history, dynamics, strategy and competition
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 recognise 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
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.
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