Software Engineer, Ceph & Distributed Storage
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>We are hiring a Software Engineer for Ceph & Distributed Storage. As part of Cloud Engineering, you’ll be building modelling software to drive systems such as OpenStack, Ceph, and Kubernetes with a focus on distributed storage and Ceph. You’ll be engineering solutions to scale in production, working with our field teams to ensure we’re meeting the needs of customers looking to adopt cutting-edge technology.</p>
<p>Applicants should be passionate about the future of the software defined datacenter, distributed systems, and open source. Canonical is a globally distributed team of engineers who share that passion, and you will need to work well in that context. Engineers who thrive at Canonical are mindful of the dynamics of the open source ecosystem, and equally aware of the needs of large, innovative organizations. <br>This job involves international travel several times a year, usually for one week at a time.</p>
<p><strong>Location:</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This role will be based remotely in EMEA or the Americas regions</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">What your day will look like</span></h2>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Write high quality, rigorously designed Python and Golang software</li>
<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;">Debug issues and produce high quality code to fix them</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Contribute to technical documentation that define best practices for authoring high quality operators </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Develop and maintain software for delivery, operations and life-cycle management of Ceph storage</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 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 have experience with writing modern, maintainable Python</span></li>
<li>You have experience with Ceph storage</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">You love technology and working with brilliant people</li>
<li>You are curious, flexible, articulate, and accountable</li>
<li>You value soft skills and are passionate, enterprising, thoughtful, and self-motivated</li>
<li>You have interest and experience with two or more of the following: Linux, Kubernetes, Public cloud, OpenStack, LXC/LXD, Python, Go, Debian packaging</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> An exceptional academic track record from both high school and preferably university</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additional skills that you might also bring</span></h2>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Experience operating Ceph clusters in production</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Experience with open source distributed storage such as Gluster, Minio, Mayastor or similar</li>
</ul>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">What we offer you</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 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 2004!</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 p
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 →