Software Engineering Manager

Software Engineering Manager (Backend SaaS) Join to apply for the Software Engineering Manager (Backend SaaS) role at 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 breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. 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. We are hiring an engineering manager to lead the reboot of our Landscape systems‑management solution for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is growing rapidly in the enterprise, with estates expanding from cloud to bare‑metal servers, vSphere clusters, and desktops. Ubuntu is easy to deploy and configure, one node at a time, but it is difficult to know where you stand on policy and compliance, patch management, or access control across a large estate. Landscape is a long‑standing service and the goal is to invest significantly in a team to bring a fresh new vision for large‑scale Ubuntu estate management. The role is a critical engineering leadership position, not a greenfield opportunity, but one that leverages an existing system that serves thousands of deployments. Today our stack uses Python, PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, HAProxy, and a ReactJS front end. In other projects we use Golang. Our next wave of Landscape engineering is an opportunity to raise the bar on SaaS and on‑prem solution technologies, architectures, patterns, and operations. Our goal is to make it easy for enterprises to own Landscape instances that serve their global estate, apply policy, and know intuitively where they stand. Engineering managers at Canonical combine technical and managerial skills. You will work closely with product managers, produce an engineering roadmap with ambitious and achievable goals, grow a team of engineers, collaborate with other engineering and business teams, and provide periodic updates on successes and areas for improvement. You must be technically strong, run an effective team, develop your colleagues, and foster a healthy engineering culture. Technical leadership experience and a software engineering background are prerequisites. We expect fluency in Python or Golang, code reviews, architectural leadership, and a commitment to high‑quality engineering practices. Key Responsibilities Build and lead a regional team of engineers. Develop talent through coaching, mentoring, feedback, and hands‑on career development. Demonstrate sound engineering principles and directly contribute toward your team's goals. Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams, management, and external stakeholders. Lead modern, agile software development practices. Ensure a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with the company values. Be an active part of the leadership team and collaborate with other leaders in the organisation. Build automated, highly reliable image delivery, testing, and publication pipelines. Engage with many other teams at Canonical, as well as the open source community and commercial partners. Work from home with global travel 4‑6 weeks per year for internal and external events. Valued Skills and Experience Track record of mentoring, developing, and growing people. Strong software development background. Focused on delivering timely, high‑quality software. Experience and commitment to agile development methodologies. Bachelor’s or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM, or similar degree. Software development experience in Python or Golang. Effective written and verbal communication skills. Practical experience with Linux system administration. What We Offer 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. Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform. Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues. Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long‑haul company events. Location and Availability Remote with global travel (4‑6 weeks per year). Equal Opportunity Statement 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. #J-18808-Ljbffr