Engineering Manager, MAAS

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 more than 80 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 an Engineering Manager as we expand the MAAS team. Our mission with MAAS ("Metal as a Service") is to provide the best solution for building and running private bare-metal infrastructure, putting a cloud-style on-demand API in front of physical server provisioning, network configuration, and storage. We're hiring engineering managers with experience in high-quality software development and high-performance team leadership who also have deep familiarity with Linux on physical servers, Linux storage and data center networking capabilities.

MAAS components span the entire software stack: from low-level hardware detection and provisioning, to the upper level management web interface, API, and CLI. Our most effective engineers are fluent in all these layers, and able to anticipate the consequences of design and engineering choices elsewhere in a complex distributed system.

At Canonical you must have a solid technical background, but your responsibility is to run an effective team and develop the colleagues you manage. You are expected to help them grow as engineers, do important work, do it outstandingly well, find professional and personal satisfaction, and work well with colleagues and the community. Technical leadership experience and a background in software engineering are necessary prerequisites for this role. You will be expected to lead, challenge, and develop engineers, positively influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution. In addition to these responsibilities, you will be expected to collaborate across engineering. The MAAS team regularly interfaces with teams responsible for cloud-init, LXD, and our public cloud offerings.

The successful candidate will have leadership attributes, deep knowledge of Linux, and can demonstrate the ability to solve challenging distributed systems problems.

Location: This is a work-from-anywhere position available in EMEA or the Americas.

The role entails:

• Leading a distributed team of engineers in your time zone (we organise engineering teams by Americas, EMEA etc)
• Talent development through coaching, mentoring, feedback and career planning
• Setting and managing expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders
• Being an advocate of, and advancing, modern software development practices
• Participating in the engineering process through code and architectural review
• Engaging with broader teams at Canonical, the open source community and partners
• Travelling to internal and external global events for 4 to 6 weeks per year

What we are looking for in you:

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in a technical subject
• Confidence to respectfully speak up, exchange feedback, and share ideas without hesitation
• Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Leadership and commitment to skills development and mentorship
• Passion for technology evidenced by personal projects and initiatives
• The work ethic and confidence to shine alongside motivated colleagues
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills
• Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred)
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Appreciative of diversity, polite, and effective in a multi-cultural, multi-national organization
• Thoughtfulness and self-motivation
• Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long
• You understand modern Linux cloud computing technologies, including networking, storage, containers and K8s
• You have experience programming in Python and Go
• You love developing and growing people and have a strong track record of doing it

Nice-to-have skills:

• Typescript using modern web frameworks such as React, Angular, Svelte or Vue

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 recognise 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 - we've been working remotely since 2004!
• 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 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 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.