Engineering Director - Commercial Systems

Canonical is a leading provider of open‑source software and operating systems for global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is 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 more than 80 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.

The company is founder‑led, profitable and growing.

We are hiring a Engineering Director , who will take ownership of the development and operations of internal software products serving Canonical business and a popular security solution Livepatch. A successful candidate has a track record of delivering full‑stack software services, adheres to high engineering quality standards, and continuously develops their skills as well as those of their direct reports. This is an exciting opportunity to work with highly enthusiastic people on innovative engineering solutions supporting Canonical's growth and to learn a lot about engineering for the business.

Commercial Systems Unit

The Billing team designs, develops, and operates a Golang service that provides a standardized and scalable capability to turn metrics into billable amounts, enable customers to see their current spend with Canonical at any time, and ensure accurate, reliable, and timely billing. The service further integrates with other engineering, business and payment systems.

The Contracts team designs, develops, and operates a Golang service that will become the single source of truth for all contracts with all customers. The service provides a standardized CPQ capability and stores signed contracts in a structured format. The service further integrates with other engineering and business systems, including a CRM system and an accounting system.

The Livepatch team designs and develops a service for the delivery of Linux kernel patches to shrink the exploit window for critical and high‑severity Linux kernel vulnerabilities, by patching the Linux kernel between security maintenance windows, while the system runs. The engineering team behind this product develops Golang‑based client and backend components, while another Canonical team, the Kernel team, develops the security patches.

Location

This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

The role entails

• Leading multiple teams of engineers, ranging from graduates to seniors
• Developing your engineering managers to maintain Canonical culture in their teams
• Developing and evangelizing great engineering practices and processes in the teams
• Setting and implementing solid performance management with performance goals and objectives for your direct reports and teams
• Identifying and measuring indicators of team health, and taking action where needed
• Being accountable for the product development roadmaps in the teams
• Being an active part of the Commercial Systems leadership team, collaborating with other leaders
• Expanding your teams by hiring great talent
• Collaborating with stakeholders and product users

What we are looking for in you

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
• Proven ability to drive multiple teams or large teams of software engineers to deliver outstanding results
• Engineering experience in at least one of the following areas: Golang, Python, Java, or distributed integrations
• Track record of going above and beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills
• Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year, for company events up to two weeks long

Nice‑to‑have skills

• Performance engineering and DevOps/SRE experience
• Experience with accounting, sales, sales operations, or other business roles

What we offer colleagues

• 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 Program
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events

About Canonical

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

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.

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