UX Designer at Canonical - Remote EMEA Open Source — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Remote-First, EMEA-Scoped: This role is fully remote within the EMEA region, which covers Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — a vast zone spanning UTC-1 to UTC+5. Canonical is one of the most established remote-first tech companies in the world, operating this way since 2004, so the async culture is deeply embedded. While timezone constraints aren't explicitly stated, the EMEA requirement suggests synchronous overlap during European business hours (roughly 8am–6pm CET) for team collaboration.
Travel Perks Worth Noting: This role includes two company-wide team sprints per year (up to two weeks each) in various global locations, with Priority Pass lounge access and travel upgrades for long-haul flights. For nomads, this means two fully paid international travel experiences annually — a rare and genuine perk.
Visa Considerations for Nomads: Popular EMEA-based nomad hubs that fit this role well include:
- Lisbon, Portugal — EU Digital Nomad Visa available; cost of living ~$1,800–2,500/month; strong tech community
- Tbilisi, Georgia — Visa-free for many nationalities up to 1 year; cost of living ~$1,000–1,500/month; growing nomad scene
- Cape Town, South Africa — EMEA-eligible; tourist stays of 90 days; cost of living ~$1,200–1,800/month; excellent infrastructure
The $2,000/year learning budget can also offset coworking memberships or professional development tools — a solid bonus for location-independent workers building their skills on the road.
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 Infrastructure to work with the exceptional engineering teams at Canonical, creating open-source tools that are used to build clouds and manage clusters of compute 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 oriented user experience designer who shares our ambitions.
This role sits in the design team reporting to the Infrastructure design manager.
Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.
The Role Entails
- Building tools that enable everyone to build their own cloud experiences (MAAS, LXD, MicroCloud and Canonical k8s)
- Collaborating with product managers and engineers to shape the future of the Data Center: Self-sovereign Clouds
- 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 in You
- Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
- Bachelor's or equivalent in User Experience, Design, or STEM — or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
- Excitement about building things and working with real hardware
- 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 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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