Engineering Manager - Public Cloud, Python, Golang

Canonical; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Distributed work environment with team

Learning and development budget USD 2,

Annual compensation review

Recognition rewards

Annual holiday leave

Maternity and paternity leave

Wellness platform & support

Travel to meet colleagues

Travel upgrades for long-haul events

Job summary

Canonical is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a team that optimizes Ubuntu images for cloud infrastructures. You will mentor engineers, drive technical leadership, and collaborate with cloud partners like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to ensure high quality, secure, and scalable VM experiences.

You will work with Python and Golang, uphold healthy engineering practices, and own delivery pipelines while supporting team growth and strategy execution.

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering teams and product delivery.
• Strong background in Python or Golang development.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and grow talent.
• Fluent written and verbal communication; collaborative leadership.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of engineers across timezones.
• Coach, mentor, and provide hands-on career development.
• Set expectations with engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Lead modern agile software development practices.
• Ensure healthy engineering culture aligned with company values.
• Collaborate with leaders and external partners on strategy.
• Develop automated image delivery, testing, and publication pipelines.
• Engage with internal teams and the open-source community.

Skills

Mentor & develop people

Software development

Agile methodologies

Effective communication

Cloud platform experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, STEM or equivalent

Tools

Python

Golang

Azure

AWS

Google Cloud

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 1200+ 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.

We are hiring an Engineering Manager to lead one of our teams that work closely with Amazon, Microsoft, Google and other world-class cloud partners to optimize Ubuntu for their infrastructure. Our team builds, tests, and publishes the base Ubuntu images used by millions to ensure optimal performance and security in their cloud estate. We aim to deliver the very best public cloud VM experience, as well as specialized images for specific purposes on each cloud. Our goal is to celebrate and enable their particular points of differentiation on their clouds, while also ensure a common operating experience for their users.

As an engineering manager you need to bring both technical and management skills to the leadership of your team. You will also need to represent the team in direct partner engagement. You'll be responsible for the stability and functionality that our cloud users have come to expect. You will strive to automate the delivery of existing and new Ubuntu image products applied to all modern workloads from web servers to GPU-aided AI for servers, VMs and containers.

As an engineering manager at Canonical your primary responsibility is to the people you support: ensuring that they are growing as engineers, doing valuable work, and generally having a great time at Canonical. As a lead for strong engineers, technical leadership and a solid background in software development is a must, so that you're able to challenge and grow your team members. You will have the opportunity to influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution.

We work in Python and Golang, and expect engineering managers to be fluent in the language, architecture and components that their team is building with. Code reviews and architectural leadership are part of the job. As manager, the commitment to healthy engineering practices, documentation, quality and performance optimisation are equally important technical responsibilities, as is the requirement for fair and clear management, and the obligation to ensure a high performing team.

The role entails

• Build and lead a team of engineers in your and similar timezones
• Develop talent through coaching, mentoring, feedback and hands‑on career development
• Demonstrate sound engineering principles and directly contribute toward your team's goals
• Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams, management, and external stakeholders
• Lead modern, agile software development practices
• Ensure a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with the company values
• Be an active part of the leadership team and collaborate with other leaders in the organisation
• Build automated, highly reliable image delivery, testing and publication pipelines
• Engage with many other teams at Canonical, as well as the open source community and commercial partners
• Work from home with global travel up to 15% for internal and external events

What we are looking for in you

• You love to mentor, develop and grow people, and have a track record of doing it
• You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
• You are focused on success and the delivery of timely, high quality software
• You have experience and commitment to agile development methodologies
• You have a Bachelor's or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or similar degree
• Software development experience in Python or Golang
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Practical experience with at least one of Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or AWS

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 2,000 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

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 of software. 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. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our 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.

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