Software Engineering Manager - Sustaining Engineering
- Level
- Lead
Not stated in the posting: salary, work type, visa.
Open. First seen 7 March 2026.
About the role
Canonical's standard text
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 1100+ 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.
Canonical's standard text
The company is founder led, profitable and growing.
We are hiring a Engineering Manager for Sustaining Engineering passionate about open source software, Linux and cloud computing. Come build a rewarding, meaningful career working with the best and brightest people in technology at Canonical, the growing international software company behind Ubuntu.
Sustaining Engineering is a business critical team that continuously improves various open source software by resolving software defects reported by customers. Software stack includes everything from the kernel all the way up to the user space applications and IaaS platforms. This position leads one of our regional teams and is one of several managers, who report directly to the global Director of Sustaining Engineering.
Our customers build large-scale mission critical infrastructure and application solutions on Ubuntu and open source from Canonical. While not actively developing products, Sustaining Engineering, as part of Support Engineering, solves problems for the customer and for the benefit of the wider Open Source community. This team is well staffed with experts in every time zone and, while the work can be challenging sometimes, the team is resourced to ensure a good work-life balance and ongoing development of each team member.
As an engineering manager in the Sustaining Engineering team, your primary responsibility is to the people you support: ensuring that they are growing as engineers, making valuable contributions, and generally having a great experience at Canonical. Technical leadership and a solid background in software development are a must, so that you are able to help your team members grow professionally. You will have the opportunity to influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution.
Location: This is a globally remote role, unless specified otherwise.
The role entails
- Manage and lead a distributed team of engineers
- Hire, coach, mentor, provide feedback and career development guidance to your team
- Manage & measure key performance indicators (KPIs), and training
- Support timely delivery of bug fixes, patches, and other technical solutions to address business needs in a variety of technology fields, including but not limited to Ubuntu, OpenStack, Ceph, Kubernetes, Juju & MAAS
- Demonstrate the very best of Canonical in customer interactions
- Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders
- Advocate and advance modern software development practices
- Grow a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with the company value
- Collaborate with other teams in the organisation
- Work from home with global travel up to 10% for internal and external events
What we are looking for in you
- Professional software delivery experience using C, C++, Go, Python, or similar
- You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
- Leadership experience displaying ability to organise and prioritise complex problem resolution and bug fixes
- Experience with version control systems such as git
- Experience with debugging tools such as gdb, crash or other
- Demonstrated strong commitment to testing methodologies and maintainable code quality
- Excellent communication skills in the English language, both verbal and written
- Experience with Linux, with a preference towards Ubuntu
- Experience with Open Source and Open Source Business Models
- People management experience in a support organisation is a strong plus
What we offer colleagues
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 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.
- Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
- Annual compensation review
- Recognition rewards
- Annual holiday leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
- Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events
About Canonical
Canonical's standard text
Canonical is a pioneering tech firm 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 of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company.
We expect excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since its inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.
Canonical is an equal opportunity employer
Canonical's standard text
We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.
#LI-remote #opensource #linux #softwareengineering #cloudcomputing #technicalsupport #go #python #kubernetes #openstack #ceph
What this role asks for
Particular to this role
Git
Rare in Canonical's other 207 open postings.
In most of Canonical's ads
Linux
Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.
82% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Canonical's standard text, folded away below.
Read against Canonical's other open postings on this site.
The team: Support Engineering
This role is one of 14 open in Support Engineering.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Linux (14 of 14), Kubernetes (11 of 14), Docker (10 of 14), C (8 of 14), C++ (8 of 14), Golang (8 of 14), Python (7 of 14)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Linux Desktop Support Associate (London UK office) posted Jun 23
- Cloud Support Engineer (London UK office) posted Jun 23
- Dedicated Linux Desktop & Devices Support Engineer, Singapore posted May 29
- Linux Desktop Support Engineer (London UK office) posted Feb 5
- Software Support Engineer posted Jul 14
- Software Maintenance Engineer posted Jul 14
- Software Engineer - L3 Support posted Jul 14
- Support Engineering Manager posted May 1
- Associate Linux Support Engineer posted Feb 10
- Sustaining Operations Engineer posted Dec 13
- Software Engineer, Sustaining Engineering posted Jul 22
- Software Engineer, Cloud - Sustaining Engineering posted Jul 9
- Cloud Support Engineer posted Nov 19
From the team and dates on Canonical's own job board.
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