Engineering Manager

Canonical; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in open-source technology seeks an Engineering Manager to lead teams across multiple time zones. Successful candidates will possess a strong technical background, exceptional leadership skills, and an interest in fostering engineering talent. This role offers the opportunity to shape the engineering landscape while ensuring high-quality results through collaborative efforts and disciplined processes.

Benefits

Distributed work environment with team sprints

Personal learning and development budget

Annual compensation review

Maternity and paternity leave

Employee Assistance Programme

Qualifications

• Exceptional academic track record from high school and university.
• Experience in leading, coaching, and mentoring software developers.
• Strong organisational skills to ensure timely project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of engineers, from graduate to senior level.
• Represent team and product to stakeholders, partners, and customers.
• Implement disciplined engineering processes.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Coaching

Technical expertise

Agile Development

Education

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM

Job description

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This is a general track for first-level engineering management positions at Canonical.

We believe that open source is just starting to transform the tech sector and enterprise compute. Our goal is to make open source easier, more reliable and more secure for deployment and development. We strive to be the provider of ‘most software to most companies’. To deliver on that ambition, our engineers are carefully selected from the applicants across the globe. We select for brilliance and motivation to take open source to the next level. Our engineering managers help teams achieve more than they realised they could, and feel proud of the result.

We believe that Engineering Managers should be outstanding developers themselves. They should be completely at home reviewing a patch or a software design spec. They are trusted engineers who understand the importance of a whole-team effort in creating great products, and who enjoy seeing colleagues develop. They should contribute code themselves to set the standard for coding, but know that the code they write is far less significant than their ability to shape the whole team’s direction, focus and delivery. We grow management skills, and train engineers who are interested in soft skills to be managers.

A typical first-level software engineering team is based in a single time zone such as EMEA or Americas or APAC, with an Engineering Manager and a Senior Engineer dedicated to a single product, who work as a team to shape the roadmap, technical strategy, code, documentation and community engagement. They are both capable of coding, and are both leaders comfortable assigning work and maintaining expectations of delivery. They will both be expected to take management training at Canonical so they speak the same language when it comes to team behaviours, habits, routines, norms and standards, but they focus on different sides of the problem.

An Engineering Manager is responsible for line management and career guidance. The ability to develop engineering talent, to represent your team and product from a technical perspective, and to drive collaboration with other teams and customers are all critical to success in this role.

We have open manager roles across a wide range of engineering domains, including:

• Python and Golang
• C / C++ / Rust
• Data infrastructure
• Flutter
• Distro packaging and systems
• SAAS and web microservices
• Kernel
• Servers
• Silicon enablement and embedded devices
• Product Security

If your domain of expertise isn’t listed above, yet you feel it’s relevant to Canonical, then feel free to apply anyway. We will route you to the most suitable team.

Location: we have engineering management positions open in every time zone

What you’ll do

• Lead and develop a team of engineers, ranging from graduate to senior
• Work remotely in a single major time zone, sometimes two
• Coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback
• Identify and measure team health indicators
• Implement disciplined engineering processes
• Represent your team and product to stakeholders, partners, and customers
• Develop and evangelise great engineering and organisational practices
• Plan and manage progress on agreed goals and projects
• Be an active part of the leadership team, collaborating with other leaders

What we’re 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
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
• A love of developing and growing people and a track record of it
• Experience in leading, coaching and mentoring software developers
• Organised and able to ensure your team delivers timely, high quality results
• Well-organised, self-starting and able to deliver to schedule
• Professional manner interacting with colleagues, partners, and community
• You have advanced expertise in your own domain
• You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
• You have solid experience working in an agile development environment
• You have a demonstrated drive for continual learning
• Builds trust, relationships and confidence
• 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

• Experience in a developer advocacy or community role
• Ops and system administration experience
• 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, 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