About Canonical

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, the world's leading open-source operating system powering enterprise innovation in public cloud, data science, AI, engineering, and IoT. As a pioneer in global distributed collaboration, Canonical employs over 1200 colleagues across more than 80 countries, with very few office-based roles. The company is founder-led, profitable, and rapidly growing, serving top public cloud providers, silicon manufacturers, and industry leaders worldwide. Canonical's remote-first culture emphasizes two to four annual in-person meetings in inspiring global locations to align on strategy and execution.

Role Overview

The Information Systems - Open Source Technical Architect role at Canonical is a strategic leadership position focused on defining best practices in infrastructure as code at global scale. Based remotely in the EMEA region, you'll shape the infrastructure supporting tens of millions of Ubuntu devices. As part of the Information Systems (IS) team, responsible for all IT operations including Ubuntu's build, packaging, and distribution infrastructure, you'll design everything from PCI lanes to CDN networks. This home-based position includes approximately 4 weeks of annual travel for company events, offering a unique opportunity to advance open-source technologies and improve Canonical's products directly.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Vision and Roadmap

Define, gain buy-in, and implement a holistic vision for a world-class internal cloud. Set up, maintain, and update the technical design roadmap and guidelines for System Reliability Engineers (SREs) within IS, targeting improvements in reliability, resilience, operational scalability, and technical scalability.

Collaboration and Leadership

Collaborate with cloud-ops software development teams to provide input on roadmaps, requirements, and prioritization for highly standardized, automated operations. Offer IS management expert advice on technology, reliability, resilience, and business cases. Lead technical choices to deliver self-service products ensuring scalable operations.

Security and Automation

Partner with product security and operations security teams to establish best practices and mitigate emerging threats promptly. Automate operations for reuse across the world's largest enterprises, accounting for distributed systems complexities. Collaborate with development teams on service architecture, documentation, playbooks, policies, and procedures.

Incident Analysis and Improvement

Analyze incidents and events to uncover root causes and implement structural improvements that minimize recurrence, driving continuous enhancement in Canonical's global infrastructure.

Qualifications & Requirements

Essential Qualifications

Candidates must demonstrate an exceptional academic track record from high school and university, with an undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative for an alternative path. Confidence in speaking up, exchanging feedback, and sharing ideas is crucial, alongside a proven track record of exceeding expectations for outstanding results.

Technical Expertise

Extensive knowledge of cloud computing concepts, technologies, and operations is required, complemented by practical experience in Linux networking, routing, firewalls, internet transit, and large-scale bandwidth networking. Hands-on experience with significant production outages, incident response, and postmortems is essential. A passion for writing, sharing, and maintaining enterprise open-source software solutions, particularly familiarity and enthusiasm for Ubuntu or Debian, sets top candidates apart. Excellent communication in English across email, chat, video, voice, and in-person is mandatory.

Nice-to-Have Skills

Modern software engineering practices including peer-review, unit testing, SCM, CI/CD, and Agile methodologies. Hands-on experience with automatic administration of enterprise Linux servers at scale.

Benefits & Perks

Canonical offers a fully remote, home-based position in EMEA with flexibility and autonomy. Enjoy twice-annual travel to captivating global locations for team alignment, totaling around 4 weeks per year. Benefit from working with the latest Ubuntu capabilities and open-source innovations in a high-impact environment. As part of a profitable, growing company, you'll contribute to infrastructure serving millions, with opportunities to coach teams on automation, reliability, and scalability.

Career Growth

This architect role positions you to lead SREs and Data Center Engineers, influencing Canonical's operational excellence and product evolution. Gain exposure to global enterprise challenges, mentor teams, and drive open-source advancements. Canonical's distributed model fosters rapid career progression through ownership, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration, with clear paths to senior leadership in IT operations and cloud infrastructure.

Why Join Canonical

Join Canonical to work on Ubuntu, the backbone of modern enterprise computing, in a remote-first culture that values distributed talent. Shape the future of open source at scale, impacting millions of users and top tech firms. With a founder-led vision, financial stability, and commitment to modern DevOps principles, Canonical offers unparalleled opportunities for technical architects passionate about reliability, automation, and innovation.

Role FAQs

Is this role fully remote?

Yes, it's home-based in EMEA with ~4 weeks annual travel for company events.

What technologies will I work with?

Ubuntu, open source, cloud infrastructure, Linux networking, automation tools, and SRE best practices.

What's the team structure?

Global distributed IS team focused on Ubuntu operations, with leadership over SREs and DCEs.

How does Canonical support open source?

By pioneering enterprise Ubuntu and contributing to upstream projects, enabling your work to enhance global technologies.