Overview

Lead Data Governance Engineer role at Canonical. Location: Remote in the EMEA region.

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 across public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Canonical collaborates globally with 1200+ colleagues in more than 80 countries and many roles are remote. The Data Governance team enables secure and well-governed access to data originating from internal and external sources, formed in a data mesh, using well-known open-source tools such as Trino and Ranger.

The role focuses on data governance policies, processes, standards, and monitoring in compliance with internal policies and applicable regulatory frameworks (e.g., GDPR, DPA, ISO). A successful candidate will develop Python-based tooling to automate operations of an internal data mesh, including data labeling and quality metrics, data access management, and data security best practices.

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

Responsibilities

• Define, monitor, and execute data governance policies
• Design, implement, and maintain tooling for automated data mesh operations
• Deploy and operate services developed by the team
• Coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback where appropriate
• Develop and evangelize strong engineering and organizational practices

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
• Track record of going above-and-beyond to achieve outstanding results
• Experience with data quality, governance, and security processes and tools
• Experience with software development in Python and SQL
• 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 security experience
• Experience with Airbyte, Ranger, Superset, Temporal, or Trino

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
• Travel-related perks for long-haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of open source. As the publisher of Ubuntu, we contribute to AI, IoT and cloud initiatives and recruit on a global basis with high standards. Most colleagues have worked from home since our inception in 2004. Working at Canonical challenges you to think differently, work smarter, and continuously improve.

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.