Solution Architecture Manager - Canonical

About the Role

As a Solution Architecture Manager at Canonical, you will lead a field engineering team responsible for helping customers implement open-source solutions across public clouds and private data centers. You will bridge the gap between technical presales and professional services, ensuring our customers successfully deploy technologies like Ubuntu, Kubernetes, OpenStack, Ceph, and MLops platforms.

We believe engineering managers should be outstanding technical leaders who remain hands-on, troubleshooting issues and participating in presales conversations while focusing on team direction and talent development.

What You Will Do

• Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and mentor a team of field engineers (ranging from graduate to senior) in presales and professional services.
• Technical Strategy: Act as a trusted advisor to customers, solving complex problems and promoting Canonical's technology stack.
• Operational Excellence: Implement disciplined engineering processes, identify team health indicators, and manage project progress against quarterly goals.
• Collaboration: Work closely with internal stakeholders, partners, and other leadership teams to influence engineering roadmaps.
• Presales: Actively participate in technical presales to support departmental goals.

What We Are Looking For

• Technical Expertise: Strong knowledge of cloud computing (Kubernetes, OpenStack, AWS, GCP, Azure, Ceph) and practical experience with Linux and networking.
• Leadership: Proven track record of leading, coaching, and mentoring engineers with a passion for developing talent.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written English skills; ability to interact effectively with customers and internal teams.
• Mindset: Dynamic, organized, and capable of delivering high-quality results in a fast-paced environment.
• Education: Exceptional academic track record (high school and university).
• Travel: Willingness to travel up to 25% for internal events, tech conferences, and customer meetings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in Python.
• Fluency in a second language (Spanish or French preferred).
• Experience collaborating with external partners and providing stakeholder feedback.

What We Offer

• Global Compensation: Competitive pay based on location, experience, and performance, with annual reviews and performance-driven bonuses.
• Work-Life Balance: 40 days of annual leave (including public holidays), maternity/paternity leave, and a distributed work environment.
• Growth: $2,000 annual personal learning and development budget.
• Support: Employee Assistance Programme and recognition rewards.
• Travel: Opportunities to meet colleagues globally, with travel upgrades for long-haul company events.