Opportunity

Senior SRE GitOps Engineer - Canonical Open Source in Columbus

Location Columbus
Company Canonical
Source jobicy
Posted 2026-08-22 16:15:07

Career & Market Insight

This is a high-leverage senior IC role at a globally recognized open source company. Canonical's IS team operates infrastructure used by 60 million+ Ubuntu users — giving you real-world scale that few companies can match at this level.

Compensation: Canonical adjusts pay by geography, so salary varies significantly by location. Market benchmarks for Senior SRE roles range from $120k–$175k USD in North America, €70k–€110k in Western Europe, and lower in APAC/LATAM. The annual review and performance bonus add meaningful upside, though total comp may trail pure FAANG packages in high-cost markets.

Skills developed: This role builds a rare, highly marketable combination:

  • GitOps and IaC at enterprise scale (Terraform, Juju, cloud-init)
  • Observability engineering (Prometheus, Grafana, Elasticsearch)
  • Kubernetes and multi-cloud orchestration
  • Python automation engineering at production scale
  • Cross-functional tech leadership and mentorship

Green flags: Canonical is profitable and founder-led — unusual stability for a tech firm. The $2,000/year L&D budget and dedicated uninterrupted project time signal genuine investment in engineer growth. The embedded tech lead framing offers a path toward architecture or management without forcing a rigid ladder.

Watch for: Canonical's compensation is geography-adjusted, which can mean lower absolute pay for engineers in high-cost cities. The on-call escalation ownership is real — this isn't a purely 9-to-5 role. Candidates who thrive here are self-directed, comfortable in async environments, and genuinely passionate about open source.

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 Senior Site Reliability / Gitops Engineer to our Information Systems (IS) team. This role is an opportunity for an "automation-first" senior technologist with a passion for Linux to build a career with Canonical and drive the success with those leveraging Ubuntu and open source products. If you have experience of IT operations automation, Infrastructure as Code and a passion for technology, then you will enjoy working with some of the best people in the industry at Canonical.

Job Summary

The IS team at Canonical supports and maintains all of Canonical's IT production services. The team is in charge of running services used by over 60 million Ubuntu users.

As a Senior SRE & Gitops Engineer you'll be in a unique position to drive operations automation to the next level, both in our own private clouds as well as in the public clouds. We do this by utilizing the best of open source infrastructure as code software, software development practices such as CI/CD pipelines, and Canonical's leading products for software operation automation.

In addition to defining the infrastructure as code, you will improve Canonical products and the open-source technologies they're based on by providing critical feedback to developers on how their products operate at scale. This is done by submitting bugs (and sometimes writing pull requests) and collaborating on design and implementations with other teams within the company.

You'll be part of a global team of SREs that work together and support each other to provide the best possible services to our company, Canonical's customers and the Ubuntu Community.

As a Senior Site Reliability / Gitops Engineer you will

  • Drive the development of automation and Gitops in your team as an embedded tech lead
  • Closely collaborate with the IS architect to align your solutions with the IS architecture vision
  • Design and architect services that IS can offer to the organization as products
  • Apply your experience of IaC to develop infrastructure as code practice within IS by constantly increasing automation and improving IaC processes
  • Automate software operations for re-usability and consistency across private and public clouds, taking into consideration the complexities of distributed systems
  • Maintain operational responsibility for all of Canonical's core services, networks, and infrastructure
  • Develop skills in troubleshooting, capacity planning, and performance investigation; set up, maintain and use observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and Elasticsearch; design, implement and maintain monitoring and alerting for various systems and services
  • Provide assistance and work with globally distributed engineering, operations, and support peers
  • Be given uninterrupted development time to focus on larger projects and automation of manual tasks
  • Share your experience, know-how and best practices with other team members in design sessions, mentorship and collaborative work
  • Carry final responsibility for time-critical escalations

What we are looking for in you

  • A modern view on hosting architecture, driven by infrastructure as code across both private and public clouds
  • A product mindset — thriving to develop products rather than one-off solutions
  • Python software development experience, with large projects
  • Experience working with Kubernetes or other container orchestration systems
  • Proven exposure to managing and deploying cloud infrastructure with code
  • Practical knowledge of Linux networking, routing, and firewalls
  • Affinity with various forms of Linux storage, from Ceph to Databases
  • Hands-on experience administering enterprise Linux servers
  • Extensive knowledge of cloud computing concepts and technologies
  • Bachelor's degree or greater, preferably in computer science or related engineering field
  • Able to communicate clearly and effectively in English over email, chat, video or voice calls and in-person
  • Motivated and able to troubleshoot from kernel to web, and willing to ask others when appropriate
  • A willingness to be flexible and able to learn new things quickly
  • Inspired by the needs of fast-changing environments
  • Happy to work within distributed teams
  • Passionate about and familiar with open-source, especially Ubuntu or Debian

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.

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

Is this role truly fully remote or are there office requirements?
This role is fully remote with no office requirement. Canonical has operated as a distributed-first company since 2004, with colleagues in 75+ countries. Teams meet two to four times per year in person for strategic sprints.
What timezone does a Senior SRE at Canonical need to work in?
No specific timezone is required — the team is globally distributed and operates asynchronously. However, senior engineers carry escalation responsibility, so some flexibility to overlap with global colleagues may be needed during incidents.
What is the salary for this Senior SRE / GitOps Engineer role at Canonical?
Canonical does not publish a fixed salary range for this role; compensation is adjusted based on geographical location, experience, and performance. Pay is reviewed annually and includes a performance-driven bonus or commission.
What technologies will I work with as a Canonical IS SRE?
You will work extensively with Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, Elasticsearch, CI/CD pipelines, Python, and Canonical's own IaC tooling across both private and public clouds. Linux expertise (Ubuntu/Debian), networking, and Ceph storage knowledge are also important.
Does Canonical offer professional development support for this role?
Yes — all team members receive a personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year, plus dedicated uninterrupted development time to focus on larger projects and skill-building.
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