Sustaining Operations Engineer
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>This is a fast-paced engineering role in Linux-based software-defined infrastructure and applications, covering all layers of the stack, including bare metal, virtualization (KVM) and containerization (Docker and LXC/LXD), storage (Ceph and Linux filesystems), networking (OVS, OVN and Core networking), up to OpenStack and Kubernetes, and the open source applications running on top of them.</p>
<p>This role is an opportunity for a technologist with a passion for Linux and open source to build a career with Canonical and drive success for our customers, community and the company. If you have great communication skills, and a passion for troubleshooting and fixing issues in technology used by millions across the world, then you will enjoy working with some of the best people in the industry at Canonical.</p>
<p><strong>Location: </strong>This is a globally remote role.</p>
<p>This role deals with critical issues in the open source stack that require deep debugging and troubleshooting skills. Our engineers have to be able to work productively at any level of the stack above the kernel, in a wide range of applications, to understand and address the software issues at hand. Our group is critical to the success of our enterprise customers, partners and Ubuntu itself.</p>
<p>You will be the final point of escalation for operational troubleshooting and driving issues to resolution with workarounds, guidance, and fixes to be released upstream and in Ubuntu. </p>
<h3>What your day will look like</h3>
<ul>
<li>Resolve complex customer problems related to Ubuntu, OpenStack, Ceph and/or Kubernetes</li>
<li>Maintain a close working relationship with Canonical's field, support and product engineering teams</li>
<li>Participate in upstream communities</li>
<li>Debug issues, propose workarounds, liaise with Software Engineers on producing a patch</li>
<li>Demonstrate good judgment in technical methods and techniques</li>
<li>Prioritize work and manage your time effectively against priorities</li>
<li>Participate in team activities to improve processes, tools, and documentation</li>
<li>Maintain clear, technical and concise communications</li>
<li>Participate in a regular weekend working rotation</li>
<li>Provide subject matter expertise as the final point of escalation on operational issues</li>
<li>Work from home and travel internationally up to 10% of work time for team meetings, events and conferences</li>
</ul>
<h3>What we are looking for in you</h3>
<ul>
<li>Professional experience troubleshooting advanced Linux issues</li>
<li>Background in Computer Science, STEM or similar</li>
<li>Exceptionally strong experience with either Linux, LXD, OpenStack, Ceph or Kubernetes</li>
<li>Strong debugging experience with Python, Go, C or C++ on Linux</li>
<li>Ability to troubleshoot with gdb, pdb, tcpdump or other tools</li>
<li>Familiarity with git source code repositories and branches</li>
<li>An exceptional academic track record from both high school and preferably university</li>
<li>Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events</li>
</ul>
<h3>Additional skills that you might also bring</h3>
<ul>
<li>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 in, and experience with most of the following: Ubuntu Linux - kernel or userspace, Kubernetes, OpenStack, Ceph, QEMU/KVM, LXC/LXD, Python, Go, C, Postgresql, Mongo, Debian packaging, distributed systems</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 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 paternity leave</li>
<li>Employee Assistance Programme</li>
<li>Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues from your team and others</li>
<li>Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events</li>
</ul>
<h3>About Canonical</h3>
<p>Canonical is a pioneering tech firm that is at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open source projects and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a v
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 →