Engineering Manager - Ubuntu Desktop Apps
Canonical
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India +3 moreremotePosted 17 days ago
Skill Required
Engineering-ManagementSoftware-Engineering-ManagerLinux-Engineeringdesktop-application-developmentFlutter-DevelopmentDesktop-Engineering-ManagerEngineering-ManagerEmbedded-Linux-Engineering-ManagerLinux-Systems-Engineering-ManagerEngineering ManagerEngineeringLinuxsoftware engineeringSystem DesignCD pipelinesCryptographysecuritybuildingFlutterwrittenTestNGdesignCI/CDCloudRustandGoCICDAIFulltime
Key highlights
- Remote roles open in every time zone
- Performance-driven annual bonus
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
- Twice-yearly in-person team sprints
- Founder-led, profitable and growing company
- Equal opportunity employer
Role overview
Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems, with Ubuntu being widely used in enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, and IoT. The Ubuntu Desktop engineering teams build the modern Linux desktop experience used by millions. The Ubuntu Desktop Apps team designs and builds core user-facing applications (e.g., Ubuntu Desktop Installer, App Center, Security Center) primarily using Flutter and Dart, with system components in Go and Rust. The role is for a Software Engineering Manager to lead this team, combining technical leadership with people management to deliver high-quality desktop applications integrated with the Ubuntu platform.
Responsibilities
- Guide architecture and technical direction for Ubuntu desktop applications
- Ensure strong integration with the Ubuntu platform, Snap ecosystem, and system services
- Participate in design reviews and key technical decisions
- Promote high standards for performance, reliability, and security
- Lead and support a team of talented engineers
- Mentor and grow engineers across frontend and systems domains
- Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Plan and deliver features across multiple release cycles
- Balance innovation with reliability and maintainability
- Improve CI/CD pipelines, test coverage, and release quality
- Work with product and design teams to deliver intuitive user experiences
- Collaborate across Canonical engineering teams
- Engage with the Ubuntu open source community
- Report to the Ubuntu Desktop Engineering director
- Collaborate closely with design, product management, and other Ubuntu engineering teams to deliver a coherent and forward-looking desktop experience
Requirements
- An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path
- Strong background in software engineering and system design
- Experience building and shipping graphical applications
- Experience leading engineering projects or teams
- Expertise in Flutter and Dart
- Experience working with modern Linux desktop technologies such as Wayland, D-Bus, Systemd, or GNOME
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to work effectively in a globally distributed engineering team
- Ability to travel twice a year, for company events up to two weeks each
Nice to have
- Experience contributing to or leading open source projects
- Experience with Linux distribution development
- Familiarity with software packaging and application sandboxing
- Performance or Security Engineering experience
- Experience in Go or Rust
Benefits
- 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
- Performance-driven annual bonus
Additional details
- Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets
- Ubuntu is widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT
- 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 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
- The company is founder led, profitable and growing
- The team works across the full engineering lifecycle, defining the roadmap, contributing to product design and system architecture, implementing features and conducting code reviews, maintaining CI/CD pipelines and automated testing, improving quality, reliability, and performance, and ensuring smooth release management and delivery to users
- 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 recognize outstanding performance
- We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally
- 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 on a daily basis
- 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
- Canonical has been a remote-first company 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
- Originally posted on Himalayas