Software Engineering Director - Canonical

About the Role

Canonical is seeking an experienced Engineering Director to lead projects spanning multiple teams and time zones. You will be responsible for hiring and managing engineering managers and staff engineers, setting the strategic direction for our software products, and ensuring high-quality delivery.

While this is a senior management position, we expect our Directors to be outstanding developers capable of leading by example. You will drive testing, benchmarking, and engineering excellence across various domains, including cloud, systems, and application development.

What You’ll Do

• Team Leadership: Lead multiple teams of engineers, ranging from graduate to senior levels.
• People Development: Coach, mentor, and develop engineering managers while maintaining Canonical’s culture.
• Hiring: Recruit staff-level engineers with a focus on performance and quality.
• Strategy: Identify and measure indicators of team health, productivity, and efficiency.
• Execution: Implement disciplined engineering processes and ensure community participation and documentation.
• Stakeholder Management: Represent your product to stakeholders, partners, and customers.
• Collaboration: Work closely with other leadership team members and leads for related products.

What We’re Looking For

• Education: Exceptional academic track record with a degree in Computer Science or STEM (or a compelling alternative path).
• Experience: Extensive management experience and a proven track record in Linux-based software engineering.
• Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication, public speaking, and presentation skills.
• Leadership: A passion for coaching, mentoring, and growing people.
• Operational Excellence: Highly organized, self-starting, and capable of delivering results to a schedule.
• Domain Expertise: Advanced knowledge in your specific engineering domain.
• Travel: Ability to travel globally twice per year for company events (up to two weeks per trip).

Additional Skills We Value

• Experience in developer advocacy or community leadership.
• Open source community engagement.
• Ops and system administration experience.
• Performance engineering and security expertise.

What We Offer

• Global Compensation: Competitive, performance-driven compensation reviewed annually.
• Distributed Work: A remote-first environment with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.
• Growth: USD 2,000 annual personal learning and development budget.
• Benefits: Comprehensive benefits including annual leave, maternity/paternity leave, and an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Travel: Opportunities to meet colleagues globally with travel upgrades for long-haul company events.