Senior/Staff/Principal Engineer
Skills
About the role
This is a remote Senior, Staff or Principal Engineer role for an experienced software engineer who can lead architecture, implementation and technical direction. You may join a team working anywhere in Canonical's open-source portfolio, from Ubuntu system software to cloud automation, language runtimes or distributed services. The role is open to engineers in every time zone and includes collaboration with global teams and the wider open-source community.
What you’ll do
- Lead architecture and design for high-impact open-source projects.
- Build software in Go, Rust, Python, C, C++ or TypeScript and React.
- Collaborate proactively with a globally distributed engineering team.
- Mentor colleagues and support their technical and career development.
- Provide technical leadership and help teams maintain momentum.
- Debug issues and deliver high-quality fixes.
- Write clear technical documentation.
- Work from home and travel globally for company events twice each year.
What they’re looking for
- An exceptional academic record from high school and university, or a compelling alternative background.
- An undergraduate degree in Computer Science or another STEM field, or an equivalent alternative path.
- A record of exceeding expectations and taking initiative.
- Technical leadership combined with team motivation and direction.
- Deep experience with Go, Rust, Python or C.
- Strong written and spoken professional English.
- Careful attention to detail with an emphasis on performance.
- Curiosity, flexibility, accountability and strong interpersonal skills.
- Ability to travel twice a year for company events lasting up to two weeks.
Nice to have
- Container technologies such as LXD, Docker or Kubernetes.
- Highly concurrent or distributed systems.
- Performance engineering and optimization.
- Software security, fuzzing, threat modeling or audit.
- Build systems, toolchains or cross-compilation.
- Public clouds or OpenStack.
- Debian or Ubuntu packaging.
- Systems programming or scalable web services.
- Quality and test engineering.
- Web or Flutter frontend development.
- REST or gRPC APIs.
- SQL or NoSQL databases.
What’s on offer
- Fully distributed work with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.
- A personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
- Annual compensation review and performance-based annual bonus or commission.
- Recognition rewards, annual leave and parental leave.
- Team member assistance and wellness support.
- Travel opportunities, Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events.
- Compensation varies by location, experience and performance.
Questions about this role
Is this Canonical engineering role remote?
Yes. Canonical says the role is remote and available to Senior Engineers in every time zone.
Which programming languages are relevant?
The role names Go, Rust, Python, C, C++ and TypeScript with React.
Is a degree required?
Canonical asks for an undergraduate Computer Science or STEM degree, or a compelling alternative path.
How often is travel required?
The role includes global travel twice annually for company events, with events lasting up to two weeks.
What learning budget is offered?
The posting states a USD 2,000 annual personal learning and development budget.
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