Engineering Manager - OpenStack & Cloud at Canonical in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Canonical's BootStack Engineering Manager role is a strong career move for senior engineers transitioning into management or experienced managers deepening cloud infrastructure expertise. The role sits at the intersection of people leadership, managed services operations, and cutting-edge open-source infrastructure.
Skills developed:
- OpenStack and Kubernetes production management at enterprise scale
- Managing globally distributed engineering teams — a highly transferable leadership skill
- Customer SLA ownership and enterprise stakeholder communication
- Agile operations in a fast-moving open-source environment
Market positioning: Cloud Engineering Managers with OpenStack expertise are relatively rare. Canonical's focus on private cloud infrastructure provides differentiated experience that complements public-cloud-heavy resumes. This skillset is in demand as enterprises pursue sovereign/private cloud strategies.
Culture signals: Canonical is founder-led, profitable without VC pressure, and remote-first since 2004 — signals of a stable, engineering-driven culture. The high hiring bar and emphasis on excellence suggest a meritocratic environment. Team sprints 2–4x/year indicate intentional in-person culture without rigid office mandates.
Green flags: Annual comp reviews, performance bonuses, $2K L&D budget, and genuine remote-first operations. The role spans management and technical depth, keeping skills sharp.
Watch for: No salary transparency is a yellow flag. SLA-driven managed services can create on-call stress; confirm escalation policies and team support structures during interviews. Also clarify timezone coverage expectations for a global team.
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 an Engineering Manager for the BootStack team.
This role is an opportunity for a technologist with a passion for Linux and Cloud technologies to build a career with Canonical and drive the success with those leveraging Ubuntu and open source products. If you have an affinity for open source development and a passion for technology, then you will enjoy working with some of the best people in the industry at Canonical.
The BootStack team designs, builds, and operates modern distributed systems on private infrastructure for customers. From Kubernetes to OpenStack and everything in-between, you'll be working with the latest technology in a fast-paced engineering environment. As a Cloud Engineering Manager for the BootStack team, you will be responsible for managing the engineers that oversee day-to-day Managed Service of customer environments, including customer service management, managed services operations and consistent product improvement engineering. Collaboration with customers, product engineering, and operations is critical to success.
Location: This is a globally remote role.
The role entails
- Manage a growing engineering team to optimise the quality and velocity of both development and operations
- Identify and measure team health indicators
- Implement disciplined engineering and operations processes
- Represent the BootStack team with respect to stakeholders, customers, and external teams
- Ensure proper team focus on priorities, milestones, and deliverables
- Work to meet service level agreements with customer deployments around the globe
- Deliver quality managed services in a consistent, timely manner
What we are looking for in you
- Bachelor's (or equivalent) education in a technology field
- Proven track record of professional experience of either software delivery using Python, Go, C, C++, Java, or similar and/or managing operations teams
- Proven experience with OpenStack
- Demonstrated strong commitment to testing methodologies and maintainable code quality
- Experience with Linux system administration, Ubuntu/Debian a plus
- Strong communication and cooperation skills
- Experience with agile software development methodologies
- Experience working in and managing distributed teams
- Technical aptitude for understanding complex distributed systems
- Experience with cloud topologies and technologies
- Travel to team and company events and customer meetings, roughly 20% or less
What we offer colleagues
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 recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. 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
- 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
About Canonical
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; in order 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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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