Software Architect - Containers / Virtualisation

Software Architect - Containers / Virtualisation

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Software Architect - Containers / Virtualisation

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Canonical

Canonical is a leading provider of open‑source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Our customers include world‑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 more than 80 countries and very few office‑based roles. Teams meet 2‑4 times yearly in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.

The company is founder‑led, profitable and growing.

We are hiring a software architect for Canonical LXD and MicroCloud. Our goal is to make clusters of compute, with system containers or virtual machines, 'just work'. It should be trivial to stand up a small cloud using one, two or twenty servers. This is a challenging exercise in distributed systems, virtualisation, container technology, networking and storage. As with the Ubuntu desktop, our goal is to make it easy and to make it reliable for people to focus on the things that really matter to them rather than the OS and infrastructure.

LXD is a modern Golang system container and virtual machine orchestrator widely used on Ubuntu, Chrome OS and other Linux platforms. LXD engineering spans the entire software stack from low‑level kernel work on namespaces, confinement, security, filesystems, VMMs and networking, to the high‑level management REST API and CLI. As a software architect, you will drive the architecture, design and evolution of LXD, and also Canonical MicroCloud which combines LXD with Ceph and OVN to make a lean, easy to use and resilient cluster‑scale cloud infrastructure.

We are looking for an outstanding software architect and engineer with experience in Golang and C, with the leadership qualities needed to rally a team to ship outstanding products. Knowledge of modern cloud infrastructure offerings, their APIs and their underlying technologies is a must.

This is an opportunity for someone who wants to have a meaningful impact on modern cloud computing technologies. Canonical offers a fun, fast‑paced team environment and a career full of learning and development.

Location : This is a home‑based position available in EMEA and the Americas.

Role entails

Leadership of the LXD and MicroCloud architecture

Mentor, develop and advise colleagues in their career progression

Develop in Golang and C

Review code produced by other engineers

Ensure the product is secure and performant

Display technical leadership in Canonical and our communities

Work from home with global travel twice annually for company events

What we are looking for in you

An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM

Drive, and a track record of going above‑and‑beyond expectations

Technical leadership as well as team motivation, direction and pace

Well‑organized, self‑starting and able to deliver to schedule

Professional manner in interacting with colleagues, partners, and community

Experience with Go and C

Experience with storage, networking and virtualization

Experience with container technologies

Experience with concurrent, distributed systems

Conscientiousness and detail orientation, with a focus on performance

Professional written and spoken English

Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred)

Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability

What we offer colleagues

Distributed work environment with twice‑yearly team sprints in person

Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year

Annual compensation review

Recognition rewards

Annual holiday leave

Maternity and paternity leave

Employee Assistance Programme

Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues

Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer. We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

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