Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer

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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 1000+ colleagues in 70+ 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.

This is a general selection process for software engineers focused on virtualisation and container technology – from the kernel through userspace. Apply if you are an exceptional Go, Rust, or C/C++ software engineer and want to work on next‑generation open source VMM or container technology, or related open source networking and storage. Container, virtualisation and cloud infrastructure have become essentials of modern software deployments. We invest in open‑source related to application isolation, workload orchestration, system or OCI containers, micro‑service architecture or cloud infrastructure.

Here are some examples of projects under way at Canonical.

- RustVMM – a new hypervisor for Linux, focused on performance, security and operability. Work in Rust and bring your expert knowledge of VMM and related kernel networking and storage capabilities.

- Rockcraft – design and implement an elevated Docker image experience for the open‑source community, improving quality, consistency and security of Docker Hub images.

- LXD – a modern system container and virtual machine manager used on Ubuntu, ChromeOS and other Linux platforms. LXD engineering spans the entire stack from kernel namespaces, confinement, security, filesystems, VMMs and networking to the high‑level REST API and CLI.

- MicroK8s and Charmed Kubernetes – building lightweight and sophisticated Kubernetes deployments. Work on K8s itself and on operations tooling.

- Charmed OpenStack, OVN/OVS, Ceph – bring cloud platform technologies to large‑scale computing environments with the OpenStack team.

This role hires system‑level C/C++, Golang, Rust and Python developers to work on security‑critical, performance‑critical and mission‑critical code, focused on software delivery, containers, security, sandboxing, application orchestration and management. Our teams are motivated to have a meaningful impact on modern cloud computing technologies.

Location: Remote container and virt engineering roles in every time zone.

Seniority level

- Entry level

Employment type

- Full-time

Job function

- Engineering and Information Technology

Industries

- Software Development

What you will focus on

- Design and specify new features, building consensus on approach.

- Engage with upstream communities in your area of expertise.

- Conduct security analysis and reviews to ensure defence in depth.

- Create and monitor performance benchmarks to optimise your product.

- Collaborate proactively with a distributed team.

- Write high‑quality code to create new features.

- Debug issues and produce high‑quality code to fix them.

- Review code produced by other engineers.

- Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions.

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, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path.

- Drive and a track record of going above‑and‑beyond expectations.

- Experience working on open‑source virt or container tech.

- Experience working in the kernel or very low‑level system.

- Professional written and spoken English.

- Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred).

- Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability.

- Passion, thoughtfulness, and self‑motivation.

- Excellent communication and presentation skills.

- Result‑oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments.

- Ability to travel twice a year for company events up to two weeks each.

Additional skills we value

- Performance engineering and security experience.

What we offer you

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.

- 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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