Engineering Manager, App Stores at Canonical

About Canonical

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Their platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives across public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. Canonical pioneers global distributed collaboration with over 1200 colleagues in 75+ countries, maintaining 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.

The Role: Engineering Manager, App Stores

This is a technical management role to lead a team that develops Python and Golang microservices powering Canonical's global software distribution engine. This engine is publicly known as the Snap Store and Charmhub.io marketplaces, a unified system managing software distribution concepts like architectures, releases, betas, and stable versions. The company is on a journey to significantly expand the range of open source software delivered through this system.

If you are passionate about clean APIs, believe in calm and regular software shipping against an agile plan, and understand that tests are crucial for higher velocity and reliability, you will fit well within the team. This is an excellent opportunity to engineer a highly scalable SaaS product, considering the load generated when large Ubuntu Desktop snaps are updated. You will also learn from Canonical's world-class security team while delivering capabilities safely to customers globally.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a remote team of engineers within your time zone.
• Develop talent through coaching, mentoring, feedback, and hands-on career development.
• Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams, management, and external stakeholders.
• Actively participate in the leadership team and collaborate with other organizational leaders.
• Collaborate with your team to build clean web service APIs supporting both CLI and web frontend clients, primarily using Python (with Golang being a significant plus).
• Engage with various Canonical teams, the open source community, and commercial partners.
• As an Engineering Manager, while technically strong, your primary responsibility is to run an effective team and develop your colleagues. You will develop and review code as a leader, but understand that product improvement comes from ensuring your team is focused, productive, and unblocked.
• Help your team grow as engineers, do meaningful work, excel, find professional and personal satisfaction, and collaborate effectively with colleagues and the community.
• Be a positive influence on culture, facilitate technical delivery, and regularly reflect with your team on strategy and execution.
• Collaborate closely with other Engineering Managers, product managers, and architects to produce an engineering roadmap with ambitious and achievable goals.
• Be fluent in the programming language, architecture, and components your team uses. Code reviews and architectural leadership are integral to the job.
• Demonstrate commitment to healthy engineering practices, documentation, quality, and performance optimization, alongside fair and clear management, and ensuring a high-performing team.

What We Are Looking For

• Good experience leading modern, agile software development practices.
• Experience forming a healthy, collaborative engineering culture aligned with company values.
• Demonstrative experience as a role model for sound engineering principles and direct contribution to team goals.
• Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events (sprints).
• A passion for mentoring, developing, and growing people, with a proven track record.
• Knowledgeable and passionate about software development.
• Focus on success and the timely delivery of high-quality software.
• Ability to value and nurture a great team culture and spirit.
• Experience and commitment to agile development methodologies.
• Software development experience in Python (experience in Golang is a significant plus).
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Practical experience with Linux system administration.

What Canonical Offers You

Your base pay will vary based on geographical location, experience level, knowledge, and skills. In addition to the benefits below, certain roles may be eligible for annual bonuses and sales incentives based on revenue or utilization. Canonical's compensation philosophy ensures equity across its global workforce. Additional benefits may apply depending on the work location; more information can be provided during the recruitment process.

• Fully remote working environment (Canonical has been remote since 2004).
• Personal learning and development budget of 2,000 USD per annum.
• Annual compensation review.
• Recognition rewards.
• Annual holiday leave.
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues at ‘sprints’ (Company Retreats).
• Priority Pass for travel 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 publisher of Ubuntu, a critical open source project and platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, they are changing the world of software. They recruit globally, setting high standards for new team members, expecting excellence to succeed. Most Canonical colleagues have worked from home since the company's inception in 2004. Working here challenges you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer, fostering a workplace free from discrimination. They value diversity of experience, perspectives, and background for a better work environment and products. All applications receive fair consideration regardless of identity.