Jobs · Full-time

SRE GitOps Engineer at Canonical - Remote Any Timezone — Columbus

LocationColumbus
CompanyCanonical
Sourcejobicy
Posted2026-08-22 16:10:02

Traveler-Friendly Insight

Fully timezone-agnostic: This role is explicitly available remotely in any timezone, making it one of the most nomad-friendly positions on the market. Canonical has operated as a fully distributed company since 2004 with 1,200+ staff across 75+ countries — this is deeply embedded async culture, not a pandemic-era experiment.

Schedule flexibility: No fixed hours are mentioned, and the global nature of the team strongly implies asynchronous-first communication via email, chat, and async video. You will, however, need to be reachable for time-critical escalations, so some on-call awareness is expected.

Travel perk — in-person meetups: Teams gather 2–4 times per year in "interesting locations around the world." This is a built-in travel perk that lets you combine work retreats with new destinations — a genuine highlight for travel-minded engineers.

Nomad destination fit: No salary is disclosed, but SRE roles at companies of Canonical's scale typically pay $90k–$140k+ USD annually. Consider these popular bases:

  • Lisbon, Portugal: ~$2,000–2,800/mo cost of living — very comfortable on an SRE salary; Portugal offers a Digital Nomad Visa (D8) for remote workers.
  • Bangkok, Thailand: ~$1,200–1,800/mo — extremely affordable; Thailand's LTR Visa suits remote professionals earning $40k+ USD/year.
  • Medellín, Colombia: ~$1,500–2,200/mo — strong expat tech community; Colombia's digital nomad visa is valid up to 2 years.

No coworking stipend or equipment allowance is explicitly mentioned, so clarify these during the interview process.

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 Site Reliability / GitOps Engineer to our Information Systems (IS) team. This role is an opportunity for an "automation-first" 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 an 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.

Location: This role is available remotely in any timezone.

As a Site Reliability / GitOps Engineer, you will

  • 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
  • Develop new features and improve the resilience and scalability of the existing cloud and container portfolio at Canonical
  • 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
  • Collaborate with development teams to design service architecture, documentation, playbooks, policies, and operational procedures
  • 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 "doing work together"
  • Carry final responsibility for time-critical escalations

What we are looking for in you

  • Deep experience and knowledge to define operations in code, using version control, peer review, and CI/CD to roll out changes both to applications and infrastructure
  • Strong modern engineering background (peer-review, unit testing, SCM, CI/CD, Agile)
  • Python software development experience, with large projects
  • 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, 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

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 SRE role truly remote or does it require working in a specific location?
The role is explicitly available remotely in any timezone with no geographic restrictions. Canonical has operated as a fully distributed company since 2004 with staff in 75+ countries.
What is the salary range for this Site Reliability / GitOps Engineer position?
No salary range is published in the job description. Canonical recruits globally and compensation is likely determined based on experience and location; you should request the salary band during the interview process.
Will I need to be on-call for incidents in this role?
Yes — the role includes carrying "final responsibility for time-critical escalations," which implies some form of on-call duty. Details about rotation schedules and incident frequency should be discussed with the hiring team.
What technologies and tools will I work with in this position?
You'll work with Infrastructure as Code tools, CI/CD pipelines, Prometheus, Grafana, Elasticsearch, Python, Linux (Ubuntu/Debian), and both private and public cloud platforms.
Does Canonical offer in-person team meetings despite being fully remote?
Yes — teams meet two to four times per year in person at various locations around the world to align on strategy and execution, which is a distinctive perk of working at Canonical.
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