Engineering Manager - Solutions Engineering

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 want to transform the world of software operations by enabling true model-driven operations via next-generation infrastructure-as-code. This will allow companies to run very efficient bare-metal operations for high-performance computing, private cloud, data lakes, AI/ML, and analytics. We need to invent some new technology, and we need to build some new products; we are therefore looking for someone who can lead and inspire a regional software engineering team to fulfill this initiative.

The Solutions Engineering team works in close collaboration with our managed infrastructure operations team, which runs many private OpenStack clouds and Kubernetes clusters for customers around the world. This enables us to improve our infra-as-code products based on our own real experience, mirroring that of our users and customers. We work in Python, creating open-source automation capabilities that simplify operations for anybody, anywhere, who is building on Ubuntu.

Most of the team's work involves pure Python software development focused on enabling true DevOps workflows. We strive for high quality in both design, documentation, tests, and performance as we enhance operations code packages and Ubuntu itself in order to ensure our platform is the easiest, most robust, and best performing for driving your infrastructure.

As an Engineering Manager, your primary responsibility is to the people you lead and support: ensuring that they are growing as engineers, doing valuable work, and finding satisfaction in their career at Canonical. We need someone who can display technical leadership by leveraging a solid background in software development so that they're able to challenge and grow their team members. You will have the opportunity to influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on direction and execution.

What you will do

• Lead and develop a team of Python engineers working remotely in global locations
• Hiring, coaching, mentoring, feedback, and hands-on career development
• Demonstrate sound engineering principles by directly contributing code yourself
• Plan and manage progress on agreed goals and projects
• Set and manage expectations with other engineering and operations teams
• Coordinate with management and internal and external stakeholders or customers
• Advocate for modern, agile software development practices
• Help develop and evangelize great engineering and organizational practices
• Grow a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with the company values
• Be an active part of the leadership team and collaborate with other leaders in the organisation
• Travel globally up to 10% of time for internal and external events

Who you are

• You love developing and growing people and have a track record of doing it
• You are knowledgeable and passionate about agile software development 
• You love leading, coaching, and mentoring software developers - especially Python ones
• You are knowledgeable in cloud computing concepts & technologies
• You are comfortable administrating Linux servers, including their storage and networking
• You have hands-on experience with software automation
• You are organized and want your team to deliver high-quality software in a timely manner
• You are a lifelong learner

Bonus points for

• You have graduated with a university degree in Computer Science or related software engineering field
• Having a thorough understanding of modern infrastructure, including OpenStack or Kubernetes
• Having experience in operations as well as software development
• Being familiar with the challenges of large-scale, multi-cloud operations
• Go expertise

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 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
• 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.

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