Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer

Canonical; Muscat; Remote; OMR 15,000 - 20,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering tech firm seeks exceptional software engineers to work on virtualization and container technology. This remote role involves designing features, conducting security reviews, and collaborating with a distributed team. Ideal candidates should have a robust background in Go, Rust, or C/C++, along with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. The company offers a distributed environment, annual compensation reviews, and a personal development budget.

Benefits

Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year

Annual compensation review

Maternity and paternity leave

Employee Assistance Programme

Travel opportunities for company events

Qualifications

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
• Drive and a track record of going above and beyond expectations.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability.
• Passion, thoughtfulness, and self-motivation.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and specify new features, building consensus on approach.
• Conduct security analysis and reviews to ensure defence in depth.
• Collaborate proactively with a distributed team.
• Write high-quality code to create new features.
• Debug issues and produce high-quality code to fix them.

Skills

Go

Rust

C/C++

Linux

Open-source virtualisation

Performance engineering

Security experience

Professional English

Education

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM

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 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 new hypervisor for Linux built in Rust, focusing on performance, security and operability.
• Rockcraft – designing an elevated Docker image experience for the open‑source community.
• LXD – a modern system container and virtual machine manager used across Ubuntu, ChromeOS and other Linux platforms.
• MicroK8s and Charmed Kubernetes – building on‑rails Kubernetes and operational tooling.
• Charmed OpenStack, OVN/OVS and Ceph – delivering cloud platform technologies to large‑scale computing environments.
• Security‑critical, performance‑critical and mission‑critical code across system components, focusing on containers, security, sandboxing, application orchestration and management.

Location: We have remote container and virt engineering roles in every time zone.

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 defence 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

• 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.
• Experience working on 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

• Distributed work environment with twice‑yearly team sprints in person.
• 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 on a daily basis. 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. Canonical has been a remote‑first company 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.