C

Engineering Manager

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 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.</p>
<p>The company is founder-led, profitable, and growing.</p>
<p>This is a general track for first-level engineering management positions at Canonical.</p>
<p>We believe that open source is just starting to transform the tech sector and enterprise compute. Our goal is to make open source easier, more reliable, and more secure for deployment and development. We strive to be the provider of ‘most software to most companies’. To deliver on that ambition, our engineers are carefully selected from the applicants across the globe. We select for brilliance and motivation to take open source to the next level. Our engineering managers help teams achieve more than they realised they could, and feel proud of the result.</p>
<p>We believe that Engineering Managers should be outstanding developers themselves. They should be completely at home reviewing a patch or a software design spec. They are trusted engineers who understand the importance of a whole-team effort in creating great products and who enjoy seeing colleagues develop. They should contribute code themselves to set the standard for coding, but know that the code they write is far less significant than their ability to shape the whole team’s direction, focus, and delivery. We grow management skills and train engineers who are interested in soft skills to be managers.</p>
<p>A typical first-level software engineering team is based in a single time zone, such as EMEA or Americas, or APAC, with an Engineering Manager and a Senior Engineer dedicated to a single product, who work as a team to shape the roadmap, technical strategy, code, documentation, and community engagement. They are both capable of coding, and are both leaders comfortable assigning work and maintaining expectations of delivery. They will both be expected to take management training at Canonical so they speak the same language when it comes to team behaviours, habits, routines, norms, and standards, but they focus on different sides of the problem.</p>
<p>An Engineering Manager is responsible for line management and career guidance. The ability to develop engineering talent, to represent your team and product from a technical perspective, and to drive collaboration with other teams and customers are all critical to success in this role.</p>
<p>We have open manager roles across a wide range of engineering domains, including:&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
<li>Python and Golang</li>
<li>C / C++ / Rust</li>
<li>Data infrastructure</li>
<li>HTML / CSS / JavaScript / Typescript / React</li>
<li>Flutter</li>
<li>Distro packaging and systems</li>
<li>SAAS and web microservices</li>
<li>Kernel</li>
<li>Servers</li>
<li>Graphics, Browser and Desktop&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li>Silicon enablement and embedded devices</li>
<li>Product Security</li>
</ul>
<p>If your domain of expertise isn’t listed above, yet you feel it’s relevant to Canonical, then feel free to apply anyway. We will route you to the most suitable team.</p>
<p><strong>Location:</strong> <em>we have engineering management positions open in every time zone</em></p>
<h2>What you’ll do</h2>
<ul>
<li>Lead and develop a team of engineers, ranging from graduate to senior</li>
<li>Work remotely in a single major time zone, sometimes two</li>
<li>Coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback</li>
<li>Identify and measure team health indicators</li>
<li>Implement disciplined engineering processes</li>
<li>Represent your team and product to stakeholders, partners, and customers&nbsp;</li>
<li>Develop and evangelise great engineering and organisational practices</li>
<li>Plan and manage progress on agreed goals and projects</li>
<li>Be an active part of the leadership team, collaborating with other leaders</li>
</ul>
<h2>What we’re looking for in you</h2>
<ul>
<li>An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university</li>
<li>Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path</li>
<li>Drive and a track record of going above and beyond expectations</li>
<li>Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English</li>
<li>A love of developing and growing people and a track record of it</li>
<li>Experience in leading, coaching, and mentoring software developers</li>
<li>Organised and able to ensure your team delivers timely, high-quality resul

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 →