Canonical Group

Home based - Americas, Cleveland

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 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 – a potential new hypervisor for Linux, focusing on performance, security and operability.
• Docker image portfolio – designing an elevated Docker image experience.
• LXD – a modern system container and virtual machine manager used widely on Ubuntu, ChromeOS and other Linux platforms.
• MicroK8s and Charmed Kubernetes – on‑rail K8s and integrated solutions.
• OpenStack – Charmed OpenStack, OVN/OVS and Ceph for large‑scale cloud 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.

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 defense 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 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
• Experience in open source virtualisation or container technology
• 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

Compensation is based on location, experience, and performance and is reviewed annually. Base pay is complemented by a performance‑driven annual bonus. We also provide a range of benefits that reflect our values and meet local needs.

• Distributed work environment with twice‑yearly onsite team sprints
• 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 daily. We recruit globally and set a very high standard for people joining the company, expecting excellence in everything we do. Canonical has been a remote‑first company since its inception in 2004.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. All qualified applicants will receive consideration and, where applicable, we encourage voluntary disclosure of disability status to comply with federal regulations.

Voluntary Self‑Identification

We encourage candidates to voluntarily disclose disability status for compliance purposes. This information is confidential and will not be considered in hiring decisions.