C

Alliances Field Engineer

Canonical

Remote OK
Home based - Worldwide
Worldwide
US hours

Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants

This remote ok full time position at Canonical is open worldwide, so South Africans can apply. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.

Job Description

<p>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 1000+ colleagues in 70+ countries and very few roles based in offices. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.</p>
<p>The company is founder led, profitable and growing. We are hiring an <strong>Alliances Field Engineer</strong> to help our biggest partners (companies like Intel, Nvidia, Google, Dell, HP, Accenture, Tata and the like) understand and embrace our open source platform for themselves and their customers.</p>
<p>Our worldwide field engineering team apply expert insights to real-world customer problems, enabling the enterprise adoption of Ubuntu, OpenStack, Kubernetes, AI/MLOps and a wide range of associated technologies. We are experts in the whole open source stack, from kernel to desktop, from cloud to the edge. Our team is also interested in business problems - building things reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively, and we have to learn to speak the language of our customers and their industries.</p>
<p>We help global companies embrace public and private cloud infrastructure, cloud native operations, and open source applications. For this team we are looking for several Alliances Engineers to support OEM (hardware manufacturers), GSI (global system integrators), ISV (independent software vendors), Channel partners and Public Cloud alliance partners. You will support various alliances and partners of Canonical to adopt our products and technologies, help business leaders to define joint go-to-market programs with partners from the technical standpoint.</p>
<p>We often say that our field engineers have 'the hardest job at Canonical' because customers can ask about any aspect of our solutions and products and expect a thoughtful, well-informed answer. We always want to do the best thing for our partners and customers, regardless of our company interests, and field engineers are the people we trust to ensure that is true.</p>
<p><strong>Location</strong>: This is a home-based role, we are hiring worldwide.</p>
<h3>What your day will look like</h3>
<ul>
<li>Understand Ubuntu, Linux, networking and services in real-world environments</li>
<li>Architect cloud infrastructure solutions like Kubernetes, Kubeflow, OpenStack, Ceph, and Spark either On-Premises or in Public Cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)</li>
<li>Architect and integrate popular open source software such as PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Cassandra and NGINX</li>
<li>Help partners to offer and architect joint solutions utilizing Canonical’s technologies on top of the public clouds and in the data center</li>
<li>Design and publish joint Reference Architectures and perform technical validations with various partners</li>
<li>Prepare and run onboarding sessions/workshops with various partners’ teams to promote Canonical products and solutions</li>
</ul>
<p>If you have a passion for the latest open source technologies, cloud-native development, data center technologies such as Kubernetes and computer networking, you will love the Alliances Engineer role at Canonical.</p>
<h3>What we are looking for in you&nbsp;</h3>
<ul>
<li>Extensive experience with Linux (Ubuntu preferred), Kubernetes, Ceph, software automation</li>
<li>Experience designing and implementing solutions on top of public or private clouds</li>
<li>Python and bash understanding, troubleshooting skills</li>
<li>Fluent written and spoken English</li>
<li>Excellent communication and presentation skills</li>
<li>High motivation, ability to multi-task and follow-up reliably on commitments</li>
<li>Interest in customer-facing engagement, including pitching, demonstrating and understanding customer environment and needs</li>
<li>Interest in new technologies like LXD, Juju and Snaps</li>
<li>Ability to travel globally up to 30% of the time</li>
<li>Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics or related technical field experience</li>
</ul>
<h3>What we offer you</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<ul>
<li>Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person - we’ve been working remotely since 20

Tips for South African Applicants

Timezone Advantage

South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.

Salary in Context

Even without a listed salary, international remote roles typically pay 2-3x more than equivalent local positions in South Africa due to the exchange rate advantage.

Application Tips

Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.

Load Shedding Preparedness

If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.

About Canonical

Canonical is a company in the Operations industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 230 open positions on Hirezar. View all Canonical jobs →