Observability Engineering Manager

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the 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 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.

We are hiring an Observability Engineering Manager who will lead the development of the distributed tracing or service mesh products as part of our Observability group. Engineering managers at Canonical are always coders who review and lead both architecture and code, judge character, and set expectations and hold colleagues accountable.

We are building an observability stack that is easy to deploy and operate on Kubernetes, part of a broader initiative to deliver the world’s best suite of open source tools covering metrics, logging, telemetry, alerting, tracing and profiling.

Responsibilities

• Manage a distributed team of engineers and its observability portfolio.
• Organize and lead the team’s processes to help it achieve its objectives.
• Conduct one‑on‑one meetings with team members.
• Identify and measure team health indicators.
• Interact with a vibrant community.
• Review code produced by other engineers.
• Attend conferences to represent Canonical and its Observability Stack.

Qualifications

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
• A proven track record of professional experience of software delivery.
• Professional software development experience, preferably with a track record in open source.
• Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events.
• Professional written and spoken English.
• Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred).
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability.
• Passion, thoughtfulness, and self‑motivation.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Result‑oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments.

Nice‑to‑have skills

• Experience as an engineering manager, with a track record of building great, high‑performance teams.
• Professional Python development experience.
• Working knowledge of Go.
• Open source contribution experience.
• Interest and experience with container technologies.
• Proven understanding of the importance of observability and monitoring for keeping software running smoothly.
• Experience designing and implementing observability solutions.

Location

This role can be home based in the EMEA or Americas regions.

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.
• Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform.
• 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. Nearly all colleagues work from home since our inception.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.