Jobs · Full-time

Engineering Manager Ceph at Canonical - Remote Global — Columbus

LocationColumbus
CompanyCanonical
Sourcejobicy
Posted2026-09-02 04:45:10

Traveler-Friendly Insight

Canonical is one of the most nomad-friendly employers in tech — fully remote since 2004, with 1,200+ employees across 75+ countries. This Engineering Manager role is genuinely location-independent with no office requirement.

Timezone flexibility: As a globally distributed team, Canonical operates largely async. However, a management role requires some synchronous overlap with your direct reports, so expect to schedule recurring 1:1s and team calls that span time zones. This is manageable but means pure night-owl or very early-morning-only schedules could be challenging depending on where your team is located.

Travel requirement: Up to 20% global travel for internal sprints and external events — roughly 2-4 team meetups per year. This aligns well with a nomad lifestyle: you get structured travel built into your compensation while remaining free to base yourself anywhere between trips.

Visa considerations: With no country restriction, popular digital nomad visa destinations work well here:

  • Portugal (D8 visa): Great for EMEA overlap, low cost of living vs. salary potential
  • Colombia (Medellín digital nomad visa): Strong LATAM time zone fit, cost of living ~$1,500–2,500/month
  • Thailand (LTR visa): Excellent for APAC overlap windows, ~$1,200–2,000/month

No salary is listed publicly, but Canonical engineering manager roles typically pay competitively for remote-first companies — more than enough to live comfortably in most nomad hubs globally.

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 Ceph & Distributed Storage. The world creates more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day! We want to help teams to store data in open source storage on commodity hardware — safely, cheaply, and simply.

Our goal is to make Ceph easy to install, manage and use — from large enterprise data center installations to half-rack edge sites. We believe that distributed storage shouldn't be hard, and to keep up with the increasing data storage demands, it needs to be easier than ever before. We have a range of tools to bring to bear on the problem, and we're excited to make distributed Ceph easy enough that everyone does it.

As an engineering manager at Canonical you must be technically strong, but your primary responsibility is to run an effective team and develop the colleagues you manage. You are expected to help them grow as engineers, do important work, do it outstandingly well, find professional and personal satisfaction, and work well with colleagues and community. Technical leadership experience and a background in software engineering are necessary prerequisites for this role. You will be expected to lead, challenge, and develop strong engineers, positively influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution. You will be responsible for sound software architecture and best practices in software quality, testing, and documentation.

What You'll Do

  • Lead a team building a Ceph-focused software-defined storage solution
  • Build and manage a globally distributed team of engineers
  • Develop your team through coaching, mentoring, and feedback
  • Demonstrate sound engineering principles by directly contributing toward your team's goals
  • Set reasonable schedules based on considered estimates, with feedback loops for improvement
  • Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams and external stakeholders
  • Advance modern, agile software development practices
  • Maintain a culture of quality and engineering excellence
  • Grow a healthy, collaborative engineering culture in line with company values
  • Be an active part of the leadership team and collaborate with other leaders in the organisation
  • Work from home with global travel up to 20% for internal and external events

Who You Are

  • You have a software engineering background, preferably with Python and C++ experience
  • You have experience operating scale-out storage clusters on Linux in production environments, preferably with Ceph
  • You love embracing new technologies and pushing the boundaries of what is possible
  • You love developing and growing people and have a track record of doing it
  • You have an interest in building products that improve how people operate software and infrastructure everywhere
  • You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
  • You have experience in leading, managing, coaching, and mentoring software developers towards delivering timely, high-quality software together
  • You have solid experience working in an agile development environment

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

Is this Engineering Manager role truly fully remote?
Yes. Canonical has operated as a remote-first company since 2004 with very few office-based roles. This role is work-from-home with up to 20% global travel for team and company events.
What countries are eligible to apply for this role?
Canonical hires globally across EMEA, LATAM, Canada, and the USA, among many other regions. They recruit across 75+ countries, so most locations are eligible barring local legal restrictions.
Is prior Ceph experience required for this role?
Ceph experience is preferred but the posting states "preferably with Ceph," suggesting that strong general distributed/scale-out storage cluster experience on Linux in production environments may also be considered.
What is the salary range for this Engineering Manager position?
Canonical does not disclose a salary range in the job posting. Candidates should inquire directly during the recruitment process for compensation details.
How often does the team meet in person?
Teams at Canonical meet two to four times per year in person, in various locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution. Travel is estimated at up to 20% of working time.
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