Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very 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 a Software Engineer to contribute to the development of Juju, a large open-source Go project that powers complex distributed software systems across the world.
Juju is the engine behind model-driven operations, providing a means to operate complex software on public cloud, private cloud, Kubernetes, and bare-metal. Combined with the Ops framework, Juju provides a complete solution for applications and infrastructure management.
Many internal and external teams depend on Juju to deliver their products and services – from Canonical Managed Solutions, our OpenStack and cloud delivery teams, to Fortune 500 companies.
Location: This is a Globally remote role.
What your day will look like
* Contribute to the design, delivery, and support of features in a highly concurrent, highly distributed system that drives cloud automation and software operations at scale.
* Collaborate proactively with a distributed team
* Debug issues and interact with upstream communities publicly
* Work with helpful and talented engineers including experts in many fields
* Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions
* Work from home with global travel for 2 to 4 weeks per year for internal and external events
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Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
4/5
EasyHard
Pace & Pressure
4/5
RelaxedFast-paced
Autonomy Level
5/5
GuidedFull ownership
Communication Load
5/5
IndependentCollaborative
AI insightThe position requires engineering reliable, highly concurrent distributed systems in Go and understanding infrastructure domains such as cloud, containers, networking, and configuration management. It also demands independent execution and clear public collaboration in an open-source, globally distributed environment.
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Go
Distributed systems
Concurrent programming
Linux
Open-source development
Kubernetes
Docker
Cloud computing
Networking
Configuration management
SQL databases
NoSQL databases
Agile development
Technical communication
Sample interview questions
How would you structure a Go service that must safely process many concurrent operations?
I would define clear ownership of shared state, favor message passing or well-scoped synchronization, use contexts for cancellation and deadlines, and protect critical sections with appropriate primitives such as mutexes or channels. I would also add race detection, load tests, metrics, and structured logging to validate correctness and behavior under contention.
Describe how you would investigate an intermittent failure in a distributed system.
I would first establish the failure pattern, affected versions, and environmental conditions. Then I would correlate logs, traces, metrics, and relevant state across components, form and test hypotheses, and create a minimal reproduction where possible. After fixing the cause, I would add regression coverage and observability that makes recurrence easier to detect.
What considerations matter when integrating a system with Kubernetes or another container platform?
I would consider desired-state reconciliation, idempotent operations, authentication and authorization, resource limits, networking, persistent storage, upgrade paths, and failure recovery. I would use the platform APIs carefully, handle eventual consistency, and ensure the integration produces actionable status and error information.
How do you contribute effectively to an open-source project with distributed maintainers?
I begin by understanding project conventions and existing discussions, then propose focused changes with clear rationale and tests. I keep pull requests small, respond constructively to review feedback, document trade-offs, and communicate progress transparently so maintainers can evaluate and integrate the work efficiently.
How would you decide between SQL and NoSQL storage for an infrastructure automation feature?
I would start with the access patterns, consistency needs, data relationships, scale, operational requirements, and query requirements. SQL is usually preferable for transactional workflows and rich relational queries, while a NoSQL option can fit flexible schemas or high-scale key-based access. The decision should include backup, migration, observability, and operational complexity.
Opportunity details
* Experience developing software using Go.
* Excellent communication skills in the English language, both verbal and written, especially in online environments
* An exceptional academic track record from both high school and preferably university
* Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events
The following skills may be helpful to you in the role, but we don’t expect everyone to bring all of them.
* Hands-on experience developing highly concurrent distributed systems
* Experience with container technologies (Docker, LXD, Kubernetes, etc.)
* Solid networking background and experience
* Experience with agile software development methodologies
* Experience in the Linux and open-source software world
* Experience with configuration management software (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, et al.)
* Working knowledge of cloud computing
* Experience with software packaging (Debian, snaps)
* Programming with, and operating, SQL and NoSQL databases
* Experience working on a distributed team on an open source project — even if that is community open source contributions.
* Demonstrated track record of Open Source contributions
* Prior experience developing plugins for Terraform
What comes with it
Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.
Estimated job median (per year)Market rate
$90,000
US market range (per year)$80k–$110k
0$121.00k
AI insightThe yearly pay period is inferred from the job context; it was not explicitly stated by the employer. No employer base-salary amount is disclosed; the USD 2,000 annual learning and development budget is a benefit, not pay. The annual figures shown are estimated USD market compensation for a mid-level Go software engineer working on cloud infrastructure and distributed systems; the yearly cadence is inferred from the full-time professional role.
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 recognise outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus. We provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.
* Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person – we’ve been working remotely since 2004!
* 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 from your team and others
* Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events