About this role.
Canonical is hiring a globally remote Cloud Support Engineer to resolve customer issues involving Ubuntu, Linux, cloud platforms, containers, storage, and networking. The role combines advanced technical troubleshooting and root-cause analysis with customer-facing communication, case ownership, and collaboration with engineering teams. Candidates should have hands-on Linux support experience, familiarity with at least three cloud or infrastructure domains, and basic programming fundamentals. The position includes a regular weekend rotation and emphasizes clear, empathetic communication in a distributed open-source environment.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
4/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
4/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I would first clarify the impact, timeline, architecture, and recent changes. I would collect relevant application, system, network, and cloud-platform logs; correlate timestamps; check resource saturation and connectivity; then isolate whether the issue is in the workload, operating system, network, storage, or underlying platform. I would communicate findings and next steps regularly while documenting a reproducible path for escalation if needed.
I would acknowledge the business impact, summarize the issue in plain language, and separate confirmed facts from active investigation items. I would explain the immediate mitigation, expected next steps, ownership, and update cadence without overpromising. Once resolved, I would provide a concise root-cause explanation and practical prevention recommendations.
I would review pod events, container logs, restart reasons, deployment configuration, resource requests and limits, image and entrypoint settings, environment variables, secrets, and dependency connectivity. I would also check node health, storage mounts, DNS, and network policies. I would then reproduce the failure where possible and test the smallest safe corrective change.
I prioritize according to customer impact, service availability, security risk, contractual severity, and time sensitivity. Critical production outages receive immediate attention and clear update intervals, while lower-severity issues are organized by urgency, complexity, and available evidence. I keep each customer informed and escalate early when a case requires specialist engineering involvement.
Programming fundamentals help me read stack traces, understand control flow, inspect configuration or automation scripts, and create small tools to parse logs or validate patterns. For example, I might write a short script to correlate error timestamps across multiple logs, identify recurring failure signatures, and provide engineering with a concise, evidence-based report.
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 1100+ 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 a Cloud Support Engineer to build a career with Canonical and support the technical needs of customers leveraging Ubuntu and open source products. If you have an affinity for open source development and a passion for technology, then you will enjoy working with some of the best people in the industry at Canonical.
While our engineers regularly solve deeply interesting, complex technical problems – from triaging cloud environments to root-cause analysis on unseen Linux kernel crashes – this is fundamentally a role rooted in human connection. You will act as a trusted peer and technical guide to external engineering teams, translating intricate open-source challenges into clear, empathetic solutions. We are rapidly expanding and looking for brilliant problem solvers who are just as passionate about building strong, collaborative relationships with customers as they are about the next generation of Canonical solutions.
Location: This is a globally remote role.
The role entails
- Empathetic Engagement: Partner directly with customers across remote sessions, ticketing,, and live conversations to deeply understand and resolve their technical roadblocks.
- Collaborative Problem Solving: Work hand-in-hand with internal engineering teams and regional peer groups to bridge the gap between complex code fixes and real-world customer satisfaction.
- True Ownership: Manage your support cases with a strong sense of personal integrity, ensuring commitments are honored and customer expectations are communicated transparently and predictably.
- Ubuntu Lifecycle Guidance: Develop a rich understanding of the Ubuntu development process, empowering you to give customers clear, human context regarding timelines for engineering fixes.
- Knowledge Advocacy: Author and maintain accessible knowledge base articles, ensuring lessons learned are shared openly to elevate the entire open-source community.
- Operational Reliability: Participate in a regular weekend working rotation to maintain seamless, high-touch continuity of care for our global partners.
What are we looking for in you
- Communication Excellence: Exceptional written and spoken English, with a natural ability to convey technical complexity clearly, warmly, and compellingly.
- The Soft-Skill Edge: A genuine passion for helping people, paired with the emotional intelligence to navigate high-stakes technical situations with composure and empathy.
- Academic Dedication: Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
- Educational Background: An undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path.
- Driven Mindset: A proven track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to deliver meaningful, outstanding results for teams or customers.
- Linux & Cloud Familiarity: Practical, hands-on experience supporting Linux systems, with an exposure to three or more of the following:
- Virtualization & Cloud: Using KVM or OpenStack.
- Containers: primarily Docker, LXD/LXC, or Kubernetes.
- Storage Ecosystems: Block, object, and network storage technologies.
- System Networking: Navigating bonding, firewalls, bridging, switching, or MTU tuning.
- Analytical Curiosity: A strong troubleshooting mindset—the ability to look into stack traces or logs, identify OS/application-level bugs, and strategically guide the customer through next steps.
- Development Fundamentals: Basic programming logic in any language to help parse code and collaborate effectively with Canonical Engineering teams.
What we offer colleagues
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 or commission. 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 of software. 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. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home 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.
#LI-remote
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
Upload your resume now
- To unlock remote work opportunities and be discovered by global employers.
This job listing has been manually reviewed by the Jobicy Trust & Safety Team for compliance with our posting guidelines, including verification of the company's legitimacy, accuracy of job details, clarity of remote work policy, and absence of misleading or fraudulent content.
