Golang System Software Engineer - Containers / Virtualisation
CanonicalHome Based - Americas; Home based - EMEAPosted 21 February 2026
Job Description
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 1000+ colleagues in 70+ 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.
The mission of the LXD team is to build a next-generation private cloud infrastructure, combining KVM, Ceph, and SDN technologies to create a data center scale cloud that 'just works' and provides a mission-critical cloud for edge and core enterprise deployments. We are hiring a Golang software engineer to work on the low level Go codebase sitting between our REST API and the low level C libraries used to manage containers and virtual machines. We are looking for system-level developers with experience in design and data management/modeling.
LXD components span the entire software stack from low-level kernel features to the upper level management API/CLI. Our most effective engineers are fluent in all these layers, and able to anticipate the consequences of design and engineering choices elsewhere in a complex distributed system.
This is an opportunity for someone who wants to have a meaningful impact on modern cloud computing technologies. Canonical offers a fun, fast-paced team environment and a career full of learning and development.
Location : This is a remote position available in EMEA and the Americas.
What you will focus on
Design, implement and document system level Go code
Model data, design database schema and implement data storage in a dqlite (SQL) database
Maintain code quality through static analysis, unit and system tests
Collaborate proactively with a distributed team
Discuss ideas and collaborate on finding good solutions
Work from home with global travel 2 to 4 weeks/year for internal and external events
What we are looking for in you
You have experience programming in Go and C
You are knowledgeable in networking and storage technologies
You have experience with two or more of: cloud computing, virtualisation, containers, distributed systems, open source community
You are curious, flexible, articulate and accountable
You value soft skills and are enterprising, thoughtful and self-motivated
You have a bachelor’s or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or similar degree
What we offer you
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. 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
Employee Assistance Programme
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 on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect ... (truncated, view full listing at source)
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