Software Developer in Observability
Canonical
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><span style="font-weight: 400;">We are hiring a Junior developer with a proven track record in Python and/or Go. As part of the Observability team, you will develop a cloud-native monitoring stack that composes best-in-class open-source monitoring tools. The stack is opinionated, resilient, and scalable, providing deep insights out of the box. The user experience is polished and seamless for the end-users, and its administrators will enjoy smooth, lightweight Day 1 and Day 2 operations. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is an exciting opportunity for a software engineer passionate about open source software, Linux, Kubernetes, and Observability. Build a rewarding, meaningful career working with the best and brightest people in technology at Canonical, the growing international software company behind Ubuntu.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The monitoring stack will monitor applications running on a mix of cloud technologies such as Kubernetes and OpenStack, as well as bare-metal, virtual machines and containers. The stack will be capable of monitoring applications and infrastructure irrespective of whether they are operated by Juju, and will leverage multiple data sources at various levels of the architecture, including Juju itself, to contextualize the collected telemetry and insights delivered to the end-users.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can read more about the project </span><a href="https://grafana.com/blog/2021/10/28/open-source-done-right-why-canonical-adopted-grafana-loki-and-grafana-agent-for-their-new-stack/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://juju.is/blog/model-driven-observability-part-1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Location: </strong><em>This role will be based remotely in the EMEA and Americas regions</em></span></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The role entails</span></h2>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Collaborate proactively with a globally distributed team</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Write, test and document high quality code to create new features</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Debug issues and interact with a vibrant community</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Review code produced by other engineers</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Attend conferences to represent Canonical and the Charmed Observability Stack</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Work from home with global travel 2 to 4 weeks for internal and external events</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">What we are looking for in you</span></h2>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You love technology and working with brilliant people</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You value soft skills and are passionate, enterprising, thoughtful, and self-motivated</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You have a Bachelor’s or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or similar degree</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You are a skilled Python developer, preferably with a track record in open source</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You have a working knowledge of Go</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You have interest and experience with two or more of the following: Ubuntu Linux, container images, Debian packaging, snap, distributed systems.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">What we offer colleagues</span></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 b
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.
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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 →