engineering
Posted Mar 18Engineering Manager - Ubuntu Desktop Apps
at Canonical
On-site
Responsibilities
- Guide architecture and technical direction for Ubuntu desktop applications
- Ensure strong integration with the Ubuntu platform, Snap ecosystem, and system services
- Promote high standards for performance, reliability, and security Team Leadership
- Lead and support a team of talented engineers
- Mentor and grow engineers across frontend and systems domains
- Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Plan and deliver features across multiple release cycles
- Improve CI/CD pipelines, test coverage, and release quality
- Collaborate across Canonical engineering teams
- Build strong relationships with the team and stakeholders
- Identify key improvement opportunities in engineering processes or product quality First 6 - 12 Months
- Deliver meaningful improvements to the Ubuntu desktop application experience
- Strengthen development workflows, testing practices, and delivery reliability
Requirements
- Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT.
- Our Ubuntu Desktop engineering teams build the modern Linux desktop
- experience used daily by millions of developers, enterprises, and open source communities worldwide.
- Our applications are primarily built using Flutter and Dart , with system components and services implemented in Go and Rust .
- You will guide the team in delivering modern desktop applications that integrate seamlessly with the Ubuntu platform while ensuring high standards of quality, performance, and security.
- Engage with the Ubuntu open source community What We Are Looking For Required
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path
- Strong background in software engineering and system design •
- Experience leading engineering projects or teams
- Expertise in Flutter and Dart , with experience in Go or Rust as a plus •
- Experience working with modern Linux desktop technologies such as Wayland, D-Bus, Systemd, or GNOME
- Ability to work effectively in a globally distributed engineering team
- Experience contributing to or leading open source projects •
- Experience with Linux distribution development
- Familiarity with software packaging and application sandboxing
- Gain a deep understanding of the Ubuntu desktop architecture and application stack
- 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 on a daily basis.
Benefits
- We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide.
- We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognize outstanding performance.
- In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus.
- Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
- Annual compensation review Recognition rewards
- Annual holiday leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
Additional details
- Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets.
- Our customers include the world's 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.
- Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.
- The company is founder led, profitable and growing.
- Location : We have remote roles open in every time zone. About the team
- The Ubuntu Desktop Apps team , as part of the broader Ubuntu Desktop team, designs and builds the core user-facing applications that shape the Ubuntu desktop experience.
- This includes key projects such as the Ubuntu Desktop Installer , the Ubuntu App Center , the Ubuntu Security Center , TPM-backed full disk encryption integration and Application Permission prompting .
- The team works across the full engineering lifecycle, defining the roadmap, contributing to product design and system architecture, implementing features and conducting code reviews, maintaining CI/CD pipelines and automated testing, improving quality, reliability, and performance, and ensuring smooth release management and delivery to users. The Role
- This is a technical leadership role combining people management with active engineering involvement.