Senior Software Engineer - packaging - optimize Ubuntu Server

Canonical; London; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading software company in London seeks a Senior Software Engineer to optimize Ubuntu Server. The role involves collaborating with distributed teams, maintaining high software standards, and contributing to open source projects. Ideal candidates have extensive experience in various programming languages and packaging systems. This position offers competitive compensation and opportunities for personal growth and travel.

Benefits

Personal development budget

Annual compensation review

Recognition rewards

Travel opportunities

Employee Assistance Programme

Maternity and paternity leave

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in relevant fields.
• Experience in packaging within various ecosystems.
• Familiar with traditional server workloads and container management.

Responsibilities

• Collaborating within a distributed team.
• Fostering seamless user experiences for Ubuntu users.
• Maintaining high-quality software standards.

Skills

Curiosity

Flexibility

Articulate communication

Accountability

Open source contributions

Debugging in multiple languages

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science or STEM

Tools

C/C++

Python

Rust

Go

Ruby

PHP

Containerization

Virtual Machines

Job description

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Senior Software Engineer - packaging - optimize Ubuntu Server, 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:

ca9d907a6b09

Job Views:

8

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.

Canonical’s Ubuntu Engineering Server Team is looking for open source enthusiasts to help build the distro of the future. The Server Team maintains and packages a wide variety of software including webservers, databases, and virtualization and containerization stacks. This is an exciting opportunity for you, a software engineer passionate about open source software. Come build a rewarding, meaningful career working with the best and brightest people in technology at Canonical, a growing international software company and help us to bring free software to the widest audience.

Ubuntu Server is a platform that enables amazing technology the whole world over, and is the #1 operating system in the public clouds. Applicants to this role will have the opportunity to help with everything that goes into evolving Ubuntu. You will get to work with our experienced team and have the benefits of learning and growing alongside the best engineers in the business.

The role entails

• Collaborating proactively within a distributed team
• Fostering a software ecosystem with seamless user experience for all Ubuntu users
• Evaluating contributions of other engineers to maintain high-quality software standards.
• Playing a role in shaping the future of Ubuntu via both - new ideas in your areas of interest and advising on work being done elsewhere
• Collaborating with other teams in the Ubuntu and Debian communities, with upstream projects, and commercially supported customers
• Owning the maintenance of Ubuntu Server packages. Specifically but not limited to:
• Traditional server workloads (web servers, databases, network services, etc)
• Virtualisation and Containers
• Package management and dependencies
• Language runtimes and toolchains
• Work from home with global travel 2 to 4 weeks for internal and external events

What we are looking for in you

• You love technology and working with brilliant people
• You are curious, flexible, articulate, and accountable
• You value soft skills and are passionate, enterprising, thoughtful, and self-motivated
• Interest or experience in open source maintenance or contributions
• Able to replay complex workloads and systems. Able to write detailed test plans and reproducibility steps.
• Feel comfortable contributing and debugging many languages such as C/C++, Python, Rust, Go, Ruby, PHP
• Experience in packaging in one or more ecosystems. This could be language specific systems (Python wheels, Rust Crates, Go Modules, or other equivalent) or any distro package format (deb, rpm, NixOS, or other equivalent).
• Experience using and creating containers and virtual machines
• You have a Bachelor’s or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or similar degree (or any higher) or equivalent professional experience (5+ years of professional experience)

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. 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