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Engineering Manager - Ubuntu Core

Canonical

Remote OK
Home Based - Americas; Home based - EMEA
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>We are hiring technical engineering manager to redefine the embedded Linux experience with the smallest, most secure, and most reliable operating system in the IoT market.</p>
<p>This is an opportunity for a technical leader passionate about open source software, Linux, containers, security, and the developer experience, to shape the future of Linux from the smallest systems up to desktops. This challenging role demands a high degree of technical skill as well as high caliber for inspiring and driving people.</p>
<p>Our mission is to allow everyone to build robust solutions in various fields including but not limited to IoT, automotive, and aviation using the next generation secure embedded Linux operating system in a simple solution. We define a reliable and secure set of device recovery mechanisms that enable device manufacturers to simplify and standardize the field operations for fleets of heterogeneous appliances.</p>
<p>As an engineering manager, you’ll lead a team of strong software developers to design and implement Ubuntu Core system software on various CPU architectures, such as ARM, RISC-V, and X86.&nbsp; You will meet stakeholders, prioritize requests, plan the roadmap and ensure the team can deliver their goals. You will have the opportunity to influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution.</p>
<h2>The role entails</h2>
<ul>
<li>Building and leading a distributed team of engineers through hiring, coaching, mentoring, feedback and career development</li>
<li>Demonstrating sound engineering principles by directly contributing toward your team’s goals</li>
<li>Coaching and mentoring team members with hands-on career development</li>
<li>Effectively setting and managing expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders</li>
<li>Advocating and advancing modern, agile software development practices and helping develop and evangelize great engineering and organizational practices</li>
<li>Contributing to a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with the company values</li>
<li>Actively participating in the leadership team and collaborating with other leaders in the organisation</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>What we are looking for in you</strong></h2>
<ul>
<li>Demonstrated competencies in embedded software development</li>
<li>Strong skills in Golang, C++ and Shell</li>
<li>A solid understanding of Linux and a modern GNU/Linux distribution, Debian or Ubuntu preferred</li>
<li>Love for developing and growing people and have a track record of doing it</li>
<li>Demonstrated ability of planning and executing to deliver high quality software in a timely manner</li>
<li>Solid experience working in an agile development environment</li>
<li>Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university</li>
<li>Undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path</li>
<li>Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills</li>
</ul>
<h2>Nice-to-have skills</h2>
<ul>
<li>Familiarity with an immutable Linux distribution, preferably Ubuntu Core</li>
<li>Experience with multiple CPU architectures such as ARM, RISC-V</li>
<li>Experience with Linux native containerization and security</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>What we offer colleagues</strong></h2>
<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 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.</p>
<ul>
<li>Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person</li>
<li>Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year</li>
<li>Annual compensation review</li>
<li>Recognition rewards</li>
<li>Annual holiday leave</li>
<li>Maternity and paternity leave</li>
<li>Team Member Assistance Program &amp; Wellness Platform</li>
<li>Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagu

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 →