The role of a Developer Relations Engineer at Canonical

The Developer Relations team at Canonical engage with community and enterprise software developers to help them embrace the Canonical approach to open source. We enable community developers and ISVs to deliver their applications to millions of Linux users and devices as snaps, charms, debs and Docker images. We also bring their feedback to engineering teams at Canonical for continuous improvement.

As a Developer Relations Engineer, you will spearhead the adoption of new technologies in upstream communities. You will identify exciting new areas of development, programming languages, and classes of application, and explore ways to deliver those applications to Ubuntu users. Then you will reach out to community leaders and technical leaders in those ecosystems and build a common understanding of the best approach to application delivery on Ubuntu for their work. You will contribute to code and technical documentation. This position will challenge you to become an expert in the technologies on which we build the Ubuntu ecosystem, and will utilize your communication, presentation and persuasion skills. We aim to inspire the next generation of engineers to work more efficiently with open source, adopting the latest practices and shaping Canonical tools to suit new workflows and priorities.

This role is a good fit for someone who is tech-savvy, passionate, collaborative, and who can communicate with a wide range of audiences. You must be a professionally qualified software engineer with open source experience. You will definitely need to be technically skilled with Linux. Experience with Ubuntu, snaps, charms or Docker images and familiarity with desktop and Linux server software development are valuable skills for the role.

You will represent not only the Ubuntu community but also Canonical as a contributor to the wider open source ecosystem. You will work in a distributed team and travel internationally 2-4 times per year for engineering sprints, community summits, industry events, and strategic planning sessions.

Location: This is a Globally remote role.

What your day will look like

Gain a deep understanding of snaps, charms, debs and Docker images
Grow the developer community by attracting software developers and ISVs to the platform
Create content to scale up adoption, demonstrate best practices, and showcase new features
Provide input to development teams at Canonical based on feedback from ISVs, developers, and the wider community
Collaborate with software developers, product managers and technical writers
Write ecosystem specific guides, tutorials, release notes, and white papers
Curate existing documentation, performing periodic reviews, triage user feedback/bug reports and determine priorities for remedial work
Engage with the community through various means, including discourse, IRC, social media, conferences, etc
Identify relevant influencers and devising plans on how to effectively engage with them
Deliver training workshops in person and remotely
Represent the platform via speaking engagements at industry events and community conferences

What we are looking for in you

You love technology and working with brilliant people
You are curious, flexible, articulate, and accountable
You value soft skills and are enthusiastic, thoughtful, and self-motivated
You have experience with developer tools and open source projects
You have a clear public record of accomplishments (talks, blog posts, GitHub, Twitter, etc)
You have interest and experience with two or more of Ubuntu Linux - kernel or userspace, DevOps, software development, testing and QA, package management, container technology
You can work autonomously and assume full ownership of objectives as needed
You can be flexible with your time and enjoy working with new technology in a fast-paced environment
You are experienced working with open source communities and understand the workflow of volunteer contributors

Additional skills that you might also bring

Experience with community management
Experience with developer advocacy
Experience as a software developer
Examples of contributions to the Ubuntu Community
Experience with contributing to open source projects

What we offer you

Your base pay will depend on various factors including your geographical location, level of experience, knowledge and skills. In addition to the benefits above, certain roles are also eligible for additional benefits and rewards including annual bonuses and sales incentives based on revenue or utilisation. Our compensation philosophy is to ensure equity right across our global workforce.

In addition to a competitive base pay, we provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. Please note that additional benefits may apply depending on the work location and, for more information on these, you can ask in the later stages of the recruitment process.

Fully remote working environment - we’ve been working remotely since 2004!
Personal learning and development budget of 2,000USD per annum
Annual compensation review
Recognition rewards
Annual holiday leave
Parental Leave
Employee Assistance Programme
Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues at ‘sprints’
Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm that is 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. Work at Canonical is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game. Canonical provides a unique window into the world of 21st-century digital business.

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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