Software Engineering Director

Canonical publishes Ubuntu and has been remote-first since 2004, with 1,200+ colleagues across 75+ countries and very few office-based roles.

A general track, not a single vacancy

This is Canonical's general entry point for Engineering Director. You apply here if you are confident running a project spanning multiple teams and time zones, hiring and managing engineering managers and staff engineers. After the first round of interviews, Canonical discusses which specific software products would suit your interests.

Director-level roles exist across a wide spread of domains:

• Python and Golang
• C, C++, Rust
• Data infrastructure
• HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, React
• Flutter
• Distro packaging and systems
• SaaS and web microservices
• Kernel
• Servers
• Graphics, browser and desktop
• Silicon enablement and embedded devices
• Product security

Canonical adds that if your domain is not on that list but feels relevant, apply anyway and they will route you to a suitable team.

Still a hands-on technical role

Worth understanding before applying: although this is senior management, managing managers, Canonical expects Engineering Directors to be outstanding developers who lead by example.

You are expected to know what great code looks like in the language and genre of your product, whether that is a web service, a system daemon, a desktop application or a distributed system. You also need to drive testing and benchmarking, and to set and defend high expectations around work ethic, consistency, focus and learning.

What you would do

• Lead multiple engineering teams spanning graduate through senior
• Develop your engineering managers and maintain Canonical culture
• Hire staff-level engineers into specific roles such as performance and quality
• Coach, mentor and give career development feedback
• Identify and measure indicators of team health and productivity
• Ensure rounded delivery including community participation and documentation
• Implement disciplined engineering processes and defend them
• Set and measure benchmark goals for speed and efficiency
• Represent your product to stakeholders, partners and customers
• Develop and evangelise strong engineering and organisational practice
• Plan and manage progress against agreed goals
• Work as an active member of the leadership team alongside other leaders

What they are looking for

• An exceptional academic record from high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling account of your alternative path
• Extensive management experience and the confidence to set high expectations
• An outstanding Linux-based software engineering track record
• Excellent written and verbal English, plus public speaking and presentation skills
• A genuine record of developing and growing people
• Advanced expertise in your own domain
• Solid experience of agile development
• Ability to travel twice a year for company events of up to two weeks

Also valued: developer advocacy or community experience, open source community leadership, ops and system administration background, and performance or security engineering.

Benefits

• Distributed work with twice-yearly in-person team sprints
• USD 2,000 personal learning and development budget per year
• Annual compensation review, plus performance-driven annual bonus
• Recognition rewards, annual holiday leave, maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events

No salary figures are published on this listing.

Location

Header, og:description and body text all agree: Home based - Worldwide, with positions available in all time zones. For a director-level role that is genuinely unusual, since leadership positions are normally pinned to a headquarters or a single region.

Before applying

AI use disqualifies your application. You must confirm you used only your own words.

This application is demanding. Alongside the standard academic screening, there are four substantial written answers:

• Which programming languages you would consider yourself expert in, to the point of setting an example on performance, correctness, test depth or memory efficiency
• Which employer you progressed most under, what you learned, how you were recognised, and how promotion grew your responsibility
• Which experience most helped you grow confidence as a manager
• Your greatest span of control, counting direct and indirect reports, and which functions it covered

These are not quick-fill boxes. Budget real time before starting.