Ubuntu Package Management - Engineering Manager

Canonical; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Distributed work in sprints

Learning & development budget

Annual compensation review

Travel opportunities

Employee support programs

Job summary

Canonical is a remote-first company behind Ubuntu, empowering a global engineering workforce. We seek a Software Engineering Manager to lead the Ubuntu Foundations Package Management team, combining technical leadership with people management to steer core software lifecycle technologies.

You will work with stakeholders across Ubuntu Engineering and upstream projects, guiding the roadmap, shaping architectural direction, and mentoring engineers to grow both technically and professionally.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or compelling alternative path.
• Strong background in software engineering and system design.
• Experience leading engineering teams, including people management, coaching, and performance development.
• Experience developing or operating Linux distribution technologies, package management systems, or software distribution infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of systems software and operating system architecture.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for Ubuntu's package management and system lifecycle platform.
• Lead and coach a team of engineers, fostering ownership and growth.
• Improve test automation, release quality, and reliability across releases.
• Collaborate with Ubuntu Engineering and Debian/open-source communities.

Skills

Software engineering

Team leadership

System design

Linux

Open source

Package management

Education

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM

Tools

Linux kernel/OS knowledge

Release engineering tools

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.

Our Ubuntu Engineering teams build the operating system platform used by millions of developers, enterprises, device makers, cloud providers, and open source communities worldwide.

Location: We have remote roles open in every time zone.

About the team

The Ubuntu Foundations Package Management team, as part of the broader Ubuntu Foundations organisation, develops and maintains the software management infrastructure that underpins every Ubuntu system.

The team owns technologies at the heart of Ubuntu's software, driver, firmware, and upgrade experience, including APT, dpkg, firmware management, and driver management.

Its mission is to provide the technologies that enable Ubuntu systems to be installed, maintained, updated, upgraded, and managed throughout their lifecycle. The team balances innovation with the stability and reliability expected from one of the world's most widely used Linux distributions.

The team works across the full engineering lifecycle, from roadmap definition and architecture through implementation, testing, release engineering, and upstream collaboration, ensuring the continued evolution of the technologies that manage software, drivers, firmware, and upgrades across Ubuntu systems.

The Role

We are looking for a Software Engineering Manager to lead the Ubuntu Foundations Package Management team.

This is a technical leadership role combining people management with active engineering involvement. You will lead a team of experienced engineers responsible for the package management and system lifecycle technologies that underpin Ubuntu. Working closely with stakeholders across Ubuntu Engineering, you will define technical direction, grow engineering talent, build strong cross-team partnerships, and ensure the continued evolution of Ubuntu's software, driver, firmware, and update experience.

You will report to the Ubuntu Foundations Engineering director and collaborate closely with other Ubuntu Engineering teams, including Desktop, Server, Security, Release Engineering, Launchpad, Debcrafters, OEM, and Product.

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for Ubuntu's package management and system lifecycle platform
• Participate in design reviews and key technical decisions affecting software management and system lifecycle technologies across the Ubuntu ecosystem
• Promote high standards for performance, reliability, security, and maintainability

Team Leadership

• Lead and support a team of engineers responsible for key Ubuntu platform technologies.
• Mentor and grow engineers, helping them expand their technical leadership, ownership, and organizational impact
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement

Delivery and Engineering Excellence

• Plan and deliver improvements across multiple Ubuntu release cycles
• Balance innovation with stability, compatibility, and long-term maintainability
• Improve test automation, release quality, and operational reliability

Collaboration and Community

• Build strong partnerships across Ubuntu Engineering, including Release Engineering, Launchpad, Desktop, Server, Security, OEM, and Product teams
• Collaborate with Debian, upstream projects, and the Ubuntu open source community

What We Are Looking For

Required

• 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
• Strong background in software engineering and system design
• Experience leading engineering teams, including people management, coaching, and performance development
• Experience developing or operating Linux distribution technologies, package management systems, or software distribution infrastructure
• Strong understanding of systems software and operating system architecture
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work effectively in a globally distributed engineering team
• Ability to travel twice a year, for company events up to two weeks each

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with package repositories, archives, or release engineering processes
• Experience contributing to Debian, Ubuntu, or other open source infrastructure projects
• Performance, reliability, or security engineering experience

What Success Looks Like

First 3 Months

• Build strong relationships with the team and stakeholders across Ubuntu Engineering
• Gain a deep understanding of Ubuntu package management, update flows, archive interactions, and release processes
• Identify key improvement opportunities in reliability, test coverage, engineering processes, and product quality

First 6 to 12 Months

• Establish strong partnerships with stakeholders across Ubuntu Engineering, including Release Engineering, Launchpad, Desktop, Server, Security, OEM, and Product
• Grow the team and raise the overall level of engineering excellence, ownership, and technical leadership
• Improve roadmap clarity, planning, and execution across the team's portfolio
• Deliver meaningful improvements to Ubuntu's package management and system lifecycle platform

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 recognize 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 2,000 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.