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 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.

This is a general selection process for software engineers focused on virtualisation and container technology - from the kernel through userspace. Apply here if you are an exceptional Go, Rust, or C/C++ software engineer and want to work on next-generation open source VMM or container technology, or related open source networking and storage.

Container, virtualisation and cloud infrastructure have become essentials of modern software deployments. We invest in open source related to application isolation, workload orchestration, system or OCI containers, micro service architecture or cloud infrastructure.

Here are some examples of projects under way at Canonical.

RustVMM has great potential as a new hypervisor for Linux. We are building a team to work on this, with an emphasis on performance, security and operability. Work in Rust and bring your expert knowledge of VMM and related kernel networking and storage capabilities.

Docker images are easy to make and publish on Docker Hub and other registries, but the quality, consistency and security maintenance of those images is broadly very poor. Canonical is in a good position to publish a portfolio of outstanding Docker images. Our Rockcraft team is designing and implementing an elevated Docker image experience for the open source community.

LXD is a modern system container and virtual machine manager that is widely used on Ubuntu, ChromeOS and other Linux platforms. LXD engineering spans the entire software stack from low-level kernel work on namespaces, confinement, security, filesystems, VMMs and networking, to the high level management REST API and CLI.

Members of the Kubernetes product team build MicroK8s for on-rails K8s, and Charmed Kubernetes for more sophisticated integration. We work on K8s itself and on the operations tooling around it.

The OpenStack team deliver Charmed OpenStack, OVN / OVS and Ceph. This work brings cloud platform technologies to large-scale computing environments.

These teams hire system level C/C++, Golang, Rust and Python developers to work on security-critical, performance-critical and mission-critical code, focused on software delivery, containers, security, sandboxing, application orchestration and management. Our teams are motivated to have a meaningful impact on modern cloud computing technologies.

Location: we have remote container and virt engineering roles in every time zone.

What you will focus on

  • Design and specify new features, building consensus on approach
  • Engage with upstream communities in your area of expertise
  • Conduct security analysis and reviews to ensure defence in depth
  • Create and monitor performance benchmarks to optimise your product
  • Collaborate proactively with a distributed team
  • Write high quality code to create new features
  • Debug issues and produce high quality code to fix them
  • Review code produced by other engineers
  • Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions

What we are looking for in you

  • An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
  • Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path
  • Drive and a track record of going above-and-beyond expectations
  • You have worked on open source virt or container tech
  • You have experience working in the kernel or very low level system
  • Professional written and spoken English 
  • Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred) 
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability 
  • Passion, thoughtfulness, and self-motivation 
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills 
  • Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments 
  • Ability to travel twice a year, for company events up to two weeks each

Additional skills we value

  • Performance engineering and security experience

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

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 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.​ 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.

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