Graduate Software Engineer, Open Source and Linux, Canonical Ubuntu

Canonical; London; Remote; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading open-source software company seeks a Graduate Software Engineer to contribute to innovative projects in a remote work environment. The ideal candidate will have a strong academic track record and programming skills in Linux, with the opportunity to engage in global sprints. This position offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits, including annual reviews and a personal development budget.

Benefits

Annual compensation review

Personal learning and development budget

Maternity and paternity leave

Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform

Qualifications

• Consistent high-performing academic results required.
• Experience in personal technology projects preferred.
• Ability to articulate ideas clearly and effectively.

Responsibilities

• Shape product roadmap at global sprints.
• Write high-quality, performant code.
• Engage with the open source community.

Skills

Exceptional academic track record

Experience with Ubuntu or Linux

Professional written and spoken English

Excellent interpersonal skills

Education

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or related STEM

Tools

Linux

Job description

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Graduate Software Engineer, Open Source and Linux, Canonical Ubuntu, London

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Client:

Canonical

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

66dc2a51178e

Job Views:

4

Posted:

12.08.2025

Expiry Date:

26.09.2025

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Job Description:

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 + 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.

If you are excited about the potential that open source has for humanity and the enterprise, you have outstanding results in your academic career, and you are excited to contribute to the open source stack, this is the best way to apply to Canonical. We will work with you to identify teams and projects that would be interesting and a good fit for your skills and motivations. The process is highly competitive, it will require effort and excellence to succeed if you apply here.

Most of our engineering teams work from home. We try to align a single team in a single time zone - EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), APAC (Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean), and AMER (North, South and Central Americas). Even though you work from home, we try to ensure you always have colleagues alongside to coach and mentor you, and for the companionship of shared problem solving and pair programming. Larger projects have multiple teams and might span the globe. We work with the open source community and specialize in building teams that work well in the 'fishbowl' of open source engineering. This is full time work, five days a week, often solving hard problems with significant responsibility. We don't generally work weekends and nights and we do enjoy good holidays but we also expect productive and intense engagement Monday to Friday.

We bring all our engineering teams together in person twice a year for a deep 'sprint' with other teams to stimulate discussion and enable a wide range of career development paths. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate and develop your skill in software, learn about a wide range of technologies, make a meaningful impact to open source, and see some very interesting new cities that you might never otherwise get to visit.

If you find the open source stack amazing, and you have been a consistent high-performing student in your school and university, then this will be a challenging and exciting start to your career.

Location: This is a Globally remote role.

The role entails

• Shaping the roadmap for your product at global sprints every six months
• Focusing on design and user experience, even for developer tooling and command line apps
• Writing high quality, resilient and performant code, potentially serving millions of demanding daily users
• Working towards mastery of key programming languages and Linux system knowledge
• Engaging with users and the open source community through code reviews and issue trackers
• Responding to customer issues as a priority, develop an understanding of enterprise requirements
• Developing skills and awareness of security in software design and implementation

What we are looking for in you

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics or another STEM discipline with programming courses
• Experience with Ubuntu or another Linux distribution
• Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Result-oriented and organized, with the drive to meet commitments
• Personal projects in technology and software engineering beyond the curriculum
• Professional written and spoken English
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Personal responsibility and accountability
• Thoughtfulness, self-awareness and the ability to reflect and develop
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long

Nice-to-have skills

• Upstream open source contributions
• Packaging and Linux distribution contributions - Debian, Fedora, Arch, Nix or another
• Leadership and organization skills
• Presentation and writing skills
• Business and commercial interests

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, 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