Engineering Manager at Canonical

About Canonical

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems. Its flagship platform, Ubuntu, supports enterprise technology, public cloud, AI, data science, IoT, and software engineering.

Canonical operates as a globally distributed company with more than 1,200 colleagues across 75+ countries.

About the Role

Canonical is hiring an Engineering Manager for Distributed Systems Testing to lead a team responsible for testing infrastructure and automation across its cloud portfolio.

You will lead software and quality engineers while helping shape technical strategy, engineering standards, testing practices, and delivery. The role requires strong software engineering experience alongside people leadership.

You will work with senior engineers and engineering leaders to improve how Canonical validates complex distributed and cloud-native systems across bare-metal, private cloud, and public cloud environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop software and quality engineers from graduate to senior level.
• Set clear expectations and support timely delivery of engineering goals.
• Partner with senior engineers on technical strategy, architecture, roadmaps, and engineering standards.
• Lead the development of automated testing infrastructure for distributed systems.
• Improve CI pipelines, testing tools, and reporting.
• Support testing for reliability, resilience, interoperability, and system performance.
• Help engineering teams adopt effective distributed-systems testing practices.
• Participate in design reviews, code reviews, debugging, and technical decision-making.
• Work with stakeholders across Canonical on quality engineering, infrastructure, and developer experience.
• Support a culture of strong engineering practices, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Strong academic record from high school and university.
• Experience leading, coaching, and mentoring software engineers.
• Professional software engineering experience using Python or Go.
• Experience with distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, quality engineering, or a related technical field.
• Strong understanding of software testing processes, strategies, and automation.
• Experience working with Linux, preferably Debian or Ubuntu.
• Strong technical judgement and software design skills.
• Ability to participate effectively in code reviews and architecture discussions.
• Experience working in an agile development environment.
• Strong written and spoken English communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills.
• Self-motivated, flexible, curious, and accountable.
• Ability to travel twice a year for company events lasting up to two weeks.

Additional Skills

Experience with any of the following is an advantage:

• Kubernetes
• OpenStack
• Juju
• Terraform
• AWS
• Google Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• Distributed or cloud-native testing strategies
• Large-scale CI/CD and test infrastructure
• AI or machine learning for test analysis and failure classification
• Deployment, operation, and debugging of distributed systems
• Leading globally distributed engineering teams

What Canonical Offers

• Fully distributed work environment
• In-person team events twice a year
• USD 2,000 annual learning and development budget
• Annual compensation review
• Performance-driven annual bonus
• Recognition rewards
• Annual holiday leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme and wellness support
• International travel opportunities
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for eligible company events

How to Apply

Qualified candidates should apply through Canonical’s official careers channel before November 4, 2026.