Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer

Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer – 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 public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT initiatives. Customers include the world’s leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company pioneers 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++ 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 are essential to modern software deployments. We invest in open source related to application isolation, workload orchestration, system or OCI containers, micro‑service architecture, or cloud infrastructure.

Projects under way:

• RustVMM – a new hypervisor for Linux, emphasizing performance, security, and operability.
• Rockcraft – designing an elevated Docker image experience for the open source community.
• LXD – a modern system container and virtual machine manager used on Ubuntu, Chrome
  
  OS and other Linux platforms.
• Micro
  
  K8s and Charmed Kubernetes – building K8s on‑rails K8s and advanced integration.
• Charmed Open Stack, OVN/OVS and Ceph – bringing cloud platform technologies to large‑scale computing environments.

We hire 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.

• 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.

• An exceptional academic track record from high school and university.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or compelling alternative path.
• Drive and a track record of going above and beyond expectations.
• Experience working on open source virt or container technology.
• Experience with kernel or very low‑level system programming.
• 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 personal drive to meet commitments.
• Ability to travel twice a year for company events up to two weeks each.

• Performance engineering and security experience.

We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. Compensation is revisited annually (or more often for graduates and associates). In addition to base pay, we offer a performance‑driven annual bonus. Additional benefits reflect our values and ideals and are designed to meet local needs while ensuring 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.

• Entry level

• Full‑time

• Engineering and Information Technology
• Software Development

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Canonical by 2x.

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