Software Engineer, Ceph & Distributed Storage

Software Engineer, Ceph & Distributed Storage

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 1,200+ 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.

We are a founder‑led, profitable, and growing company.

We are hiring a Software Engineer for Ceph & Distributed Storage. As part of Cloud Engineering, you’ll be building modelling software to drive systems such as Open Stack, Ceph, and Kubernetes with a focus on distributed storage and Ceph. You’ll engineer solutions to scale in production, working with our field teams to ensure we’re meeting the needs of customers looking to adopt cutting‑edge technology.

Applicants should be passionate about the future of the software‑defined datacenter, distributed systems, and open source. You will need to work well in a globally distributed team and be mindful of the dynamics of the open source ecosystem while understanding the needs of large, innovative organizations. This role involves international travel several times a year, usually for one week at a time.

Location: This role will be based remotely in EMEA or the Americas regions.

• Write high quality, rigorously designed Python and Golang software
• Collaborate proactively with a globally distributed team
• Debug issues and produce high quality code to fix them
• Contribute to technical documentation that defines best practices for authoring high quality operators
• Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions
• Develop and maintain software for delivery, operations and life‑cycle management of Ceph storage

• You have a Bachelor's or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or a similar degree
• You have experience with writing modern, maintainable Python
• You have experience with Ceph storage
• You love technology and working with brilliant people
• You are curious, flexible, articulate, and accountable
• You value soft skills and are passionate, enterprising, thoughtful, and self‑motivated
• You have interest and experience with two or more of the following:
  Linux, Kubernetes, Public cloud, Open Stack, LXC/LXD, Python, Go, Debian packaging
• An exceptional academic track record from both high school and preferably university
• Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events

• Experience operating Ceph clusters in production
• Experience with open source distributed storage such as Gluster, Minio, Mayastor or similar

• 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

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open‑source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company.

We expect excellence; to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004. Working here is a step into the future and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

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.