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Staff Software Engineer for Identity Management (Go/Golang)

AI Summary
Canonical is seeking a staff-level software engineer to lead the design and delivery of identity and access management capabilities across enterprise products and web services. The role focuses on authentication, authorization, API development, and modernization of the IAM stack using Go and Python. The engineer will own technical direction, review code, guide integrations, and contribute Juju operators for operational concerns. This is a remote role across the Americas and EMEA, requiring collaboration with a distributed team and limited international travel for events.
Remote from
USA, Canada, EMEA+1 more, LATAM
Salary
Undisclosed
Employment
Full Time
Experience
Senior
Published
Apply before
7 Dec 2026
Listing views
26
Application actions
0
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Opportunity details

About this role.

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 a Staff-level Software Engineer for Identity Management to work on authorization and access management across Canonical’s suite of enterprise products and web services, using Go (Golang) and Python.

As a software engineer for Identity Management products of Canonical, you will modernize and expand the capabilities of the identity management solutions we use for authentication and authorization in our products, as well as our canonical.com and ubuntu.com websites. Your work on Identity Management will directly impact the users of all Canonical products. In addition, you will help write Juju charms to manage operational concerns.

Technical excellence and a background in software engineering are necessary prerequisites for this role. You will be expected to own the design and delivery of the system, facilitate integrations and work with your team on strategy and execution.

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA and AMER regions.

The role entails

  • Collaborate proactively with a distributed team, leading technical efforts and discussions
  • Write clean web service APIs to support both CLI and web frontend clients, using Go (Golang) and Python
  • Design and implement new features and enhancements from spec to production and ongoing operations at scale
  • Review code produced by other engineers, helping set quality standards
  • Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions
  • Create and enhance management, authentication and authorization API endpoints
  • Craft end-user authentication flows from design to implementation
  • Write Juju charms (operators) to manage operational concerns
  • Modernize the identity stack of our websites and products by driving adoption of best-of-breed IAM technologies
  • Deliver great products that users love by maintaining a culture of quality and engineering excellence
  • Work from home with global travel 2 to 4 weeks per year for internal and external events

What we are looking for in you

  • You are a staff-level or experienced senior software engineer, with specific experience building identity and access management products
  • You are familiar with the open source software, standards, protocols and concepts in the identity space (e.g. OpenID, OAuth, LDAP)
  • You have experience implementing authorization frameworks in distributed systems
  • You value secure coding and standards, and enjoy working on teams that do the same
  • You are comfortable with Ubuntu as a development and deployment platform

In addition:

  • Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
  • Undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
  • Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
  • Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long

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 recognize 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 conferences 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
  • Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
  • 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 our 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

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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.

Role DNA

A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.

Job Complexity

5/5
EasyHard

Pace & Pressure

4/5
RelaxedFast-paced

Autonomy Level

5/5
GuidedFull ownership

Communication Load

4/5
IndependentCollaborative
AI insightThe position requires staff-level technical ownership of security-sensitive distributed identity systems, including authorization frameworks and standards such as OAuth, OpenID, and LDAP. It also demands architectural leadership, production delivery, and influence across a globally distributed engineering organization.

Salary analysis

Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.

Estimated job median (per year)Market rate
$190,000
US market range (per year)$155k–$230k
AI insightThe yearly pay period is inferred from the job context; it was not explicitly stated by the employer. No employer base salary is disclosed. The annual compensation figures are estimated USD market ranges for a remote staff-level IAM software engineering role; the yearly period is inferred from standard full-time professional compensation conventions.

Core skills

Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.

Sample interview questions
How would you design an authorization service for several distributed products with different client types?

I would begin by defining shared identity, policy, resource, and permission models, then establish clear API and token-validation contracts. I would use standards-based authentication, centralized policy evaluation where appropriate, strong audit logging, and carefully designed caching to balance consistency, latency, and availability.

What security considerations are most important when implementing OAuth or OpenID Connect flows?

Key considerations include validating issuer, audience, signatures, expiration, nonce, and state; using PKCE for public clients; protecting redirect URIs; rotating signing keys; and applying least-privilege scopes. I would also ensure sensitive tokens are never exposed through logs, URLs, or insecure client storage.

Describe how you would migrate a legacy identity stack without disrupting users.

I would map existing identities, credentials, flows, integrations, and dependencies before creating a phased migration plan. I would run old and new systems in parallel where feasible, introduce compatibility layers, monitor authentication success and latency, communicate changes early, and maintain tested rollback paths.

How do you maintain engineering quality while leading a distributed team?

I set clear technical standards through design documents, lightweight architecture reviews, automated tests, secure coding checks, and constructive code review. I also make decisions and rationale visible asynchronously, create space for discussion, and mentor engineers so quality ownership is shared rather than centralized.

What would your approach be to operating an IAM API at scale?

I would define reliability and security objectives, instrument authentication and authorization paths, and monitor latency, error rates, token-validation failures, and suspicious activity. I would build resilient deployment, rollback, secret-management, backup, and incident-response practices, then continuously improve them through post-incident reviews.

This analysis is generated from the job description. Salary estimates, role characteristics and sample answers are guidance, not employer-provided facts.
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