Remote UX Designer EMEA - Canonical Developer Tools — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Remote-First, EMEA-Scoped Role: This position is explicitly remote and restricted to the EMEA region, meaning you'll need to be legally based somewhere within Europe, the Middle East, or Africa. This opens the door to a wide range of nomad-friendly destinations — from Lisbon and Tallinn to Dubai and Cape Town.
Schedule & Async Flexibility: Canonical is famous for its distributed-work culture dating back to 2004, with 1,200+ employees across 75+ countries. While no explicit timezone hours are mandated, EMEA alignment is expected, so working from UTC-1 to UTC+4 is most practical. This suits nomads in Western/Central Europe, East Africa, or the Gulf region.
Visa Considerations: EMEA offers some of the best digital nomad visa options available:
- Portugal: Digital Nomad Visa (D8) — excellent for long stays in Lisbon or Porto.
- Estonia: Digital Nomad Visa — EU access, strong tech community.
- UAE/Dubai: Remote Work Visa — tax-free, modern infrastructure.
- Georgia: Remotely from Georgia program — low cost, easy entry for many nationalities.
Travel Perks: The role includes a USD 2,000/year learning budget, Priority Pass airport lounge access, and travel upgrades for company events — real value for frequent travelers. Two in-person sprints per year mean paid travel to interesting global locations, which is a genuine perk for location-independent professionals.
No salary is disclosed, but Canonical adjusts pay by geography, so nomads in lower-cost EMEA hubs (Tbilisi, Tallinn, Lisbon) may enjoy a strong purchasing-power advantage.
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 UX Designer for Developer Experience to work with the exceptional engineering teams at Canonical and have a vital role in improving how software is built and distributed globally.
Our design team is on a mission to turn complex, open-source software into efficient, intuitive products that can change how complex systems are built and what open source is capable of for enterprise IT. We are looking for a talented and technically minded user experience designer who shares our ambitions.
This role sits in the design team reporting to the Developer Experience design manager.
Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.
The Role Entails
- Designing and building tools that enable everyone to build, package and maintain their own software, with a focus on Open Source.
- Collaborating with product managers and engineers to shape the future of developer experience.
- Supporting deeply complex products with the process of design and UX heuristics.
- Working to evolve and evangelise design systems that drive consistency and efficiency.
- Understanding the broader scope of your work and its numerous interconnected constraints.
- Supporting one of our working groups to enable Canonical design's horizontal efforts.
What We Are Looking For
- Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
- Bachelor's or equivalent in User Experience, Design, STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path.
- Knowledge and passion for user experience, technology and design.
- Commitment to continuous learning and improvement — curious, flexible, scientific.
- Result-oriented with a drive to finish work and celebrate success.
- Confidence in user research practices.
- Engagement with the latest design research and innovation.
- Ability to travel internationally twice a year, for company events up to two weeks long.
UX designers should be excellent communicators who are at ease working with a complex mix of engineers, designers and executives. They represent us at cross-functional company meetings and must present their design position with clarity and precision. They should be confident and excited to take on complex design challenges, and able to connect their design leadership to the strategic vision of the company.
Read more about the design team
What We Offer
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 recognise 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.