Software Engineering Director
Canonical is seeking a Software Engineering Director to lead multiple engineering teams in developing and delivering high-quality open-source software products. This role involves managing projects that span various teams and time zones, requiring the hiring and supervision of engineering managers and staff engineers. Canonical is a globally distributed company known for its Ubuntu operating system, widely used in enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT.
The Software Engineering Director will be responsible for leading multiple teams of engineers, ranging from graduate to senior levels. Key responsibilities include developing engineering managers, maintaining Canonical's culture, hiring staff-level engineers for specific roles like performance and quality, coaching and mentoring team members, identifying and measuring indicators of team health and productivity, ensuring comprehensive delivery including community participation and documentation, implementing disciplined engineering processes, setting and measuring progress against benchmark goals for speed and efficiency, representing products to stakeholders, partners, and customers, developing and evangelizing great engineering and organizational practices, planning and managing progress on agreed goals and projects, and collaborating with other leaders and product leads.
Candidates should have an exceptional academic track record from both high school and university, with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about an alternative path. Extensive management experience with the confidence to set high expectations is required, along with an outstanding Linux-based software engineering track record. The role demands drive and a history of exceeding expectations, excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, public speaking and presentation skills, a passion for developing and growing people, experience in leading, coaching, and mentoring software developers, organizational skills to ensure timely, high-quality results, self-starting ability to deliver to schedule, a professional manner in interactions, advanced expertise in one's domain, knowledge and passion for software development, experience in an agile development environment, a demonstrated drive for continual learning, and result-oriented with a personal drive to meet commitments.
Canonical offers a distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person, a personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year, annual compensation review, recognition rewards, annual holiday leave, maternity and paternity leave, an Employee Assistance Programme, opportunities to travel to new locations to meet colleagues, and Priority Pass with travel upgrades for long-haul company events.
Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the publisher of Ubuntu, one of the most important open-source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, Canonical is changing the world of software. The company recruits globally and sets a high standard for new hires, expecting excellence to succeed. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since its inception in 2004, offering a step into the future that challenges employees to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise their game.