Software Engineer Jobs at Canonical with Visa Sponsorship
Canonical hires Software Engineers across distributed, open-source infrastructure and cloud projects, recruiting globally for roles that span systems programming, Kubernetes, and Ubuntu development. The company has a track record of sponsoring H-1B visas for qualified engineers, making it a viable target if you're building a U.S. immigration strategy around a technical role.
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INTRODUCTION
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 1100+ 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. Canonical is building a new generation of Ubuntu-based container images to simplify open-source application deployment across the world. These container images will be free to use with long-term security commitments, and engineered for performance, security and usability. As with Ubuntu, we will work in the open and welcome community participation.
In this role, you'll be developing the tools and technology for building and maintaining this new generation of container images. You'll be working with multiple teams, both inside and outside Canonical, to ensure we deliver container images with the highest quality whilst maintaining a seamless Ubuntu user experience. You will also be highly involved in the implementation and maintenance of the Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery automation around these container images, for which you are expected to demonstrate deep insights into container-based DevOps. You will be contributing to fast-moving products like Rocks (OCI images) and Chisel, and thus have the chance to help steer and consolidate this new team. You'll gain experience with numerous container technologies and participate in exciting and exploratory tasks, where your feedback will be critical for the decision-making process. As an engineer, your seniority will be based on your software development background and ability to lead junior team members. Come build a rewarding, meaningful career working with the best and brightest people in technology at Canonical. This is an exciting opportunity for experienced software engineers looking for a place to leave their mark, who are passionate about shaping an open source product with the highest quality, with and for the community!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
This role entails:
- Build robust, scalable, leading-edge container images
- Work on automated Ci/CD processes for building, testing and publishing our container images
- Write tools and tests for assessing security compliance and cloud-native compatibility
- Work in Go to deliver new functionalities to our container-building tools
- Participate in strong engineering process through code and architectural review
- Provide technical feedback for the team's decision-making process
- Engage with the open-source community as a subject-matter expert
- Grow our knowledge base and write documentation
- Work in a collaborative, agile and globally distributed environment
- Mentor and help hiring
- Work from home with global travel up to 15% for internal and external events
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What we are looking for in you:
- You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
- You are a team player and have experience in collaborative development
- You have worked with CI/CD systems (e.g. Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Concourse CI, etc.)
- You have a track record of delivering timely, high-quality software
- You have experience with container images and containerised operations
- You master at least one container management/orchestration tool (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
- You have significant experience with Go
- You are experienced with Linux systems administration and package management
- You have strong written and verbal communication skills to convey technical concepts
- You bring clarity to technical and engineering discussions
- You are someone who strongly believes that sharing is caring, and knowledge is power
- Your skills range from those of a Graduate to a mid-senior Software Engineer
- You have a Bachelor's or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or a similar degree
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
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
LOCATION
Location: EMEA
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 excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Canonical has been a remote-first company since its 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.

INTRODUCTION
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 1100+ 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. Canonical is building a new generation of Ubuntu-based container images to simplify open-source application deployment across the world. These container images will be free to use with long-term security commitments, and engineered for performance, security and usability. As with Ubuntu, we will work in the open and welcome community participation.
In this role, you'll be developing the tools and technology for building and maintaining this new generation of container images. You'll be working with multiple teams, both inside and outside Canonical, to ensure we deliver container images with the highest quality whilst maintaining a seamless Ubuntu user experience. You will also be highly involved in the implementation and maintenance of the Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery automation around these container images, for which you are expected to demonstrate deep insights into container-based DevOps. You will be contributing to fast-moving products like Rocks (OCI images) and Chisel, and thus have the chance to help steer and consolidate this new team. You'll gain experience with numerous container technologies and participate in exciting and exploratory tasks, where your feedback will be critical for the decision-making process. As an engineer, your seniority will be based on your software development background and ability to lead junior team members. Come build a rewarding, meaningful career working with the best and brightest people in technology at Canonical. This is an exciting opportunity for experienced software engineers looking for a place to leave their mark, who are passionate about shaping an open source product with the highest quality, with and for the community!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
This role entails:
- Build robust, scalable, leading-edge container images
- Work on automated Ci/CD processes for building, testing and publishing our container images
- Write tools and tests for assessing security compliance and cloud-native compatibility
- Work in Go to deliver new functionalities to our container-building tools
- Participate in strong engineering process through code and architectural review
- Provide technical feedback for the team's decision-making process
- Engage with the open-source community as a subject-matter expert
- Grow our knowledge base and write documentation
- Work in a collaborative, agile and globally distributed environment
- Mentor and help hiring
- Work from home with global travel up to 15% for internal and external events
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What we are looking for in you:
- You are knowledgeable and passionate about software development
- You are a team player and have experience in collaborative development
- You have worked with CI/CD systems (e.g. Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Concourse CI, etc.)
- You have a track record of delivering timely, high-quality software
- You have experience with container images and containerised operations
- You master at least one container management/orchestration tool (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
- You have significant experience with Go
- You are experienced with Linux systems administration and package management
- You have strong written and verbal communication skills to convey technical concepts
- You bring clarity to technical and engineering discussions
- You are someone who strongly believes that sharing is caring, and knowledge is power
- Your skills range from those of a Graduate to a mid-senior Software Engineer
- You have a Bachelor's or equivalent in Computer Science, STEM or a similar degree
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
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
LOCATION
Location: EMEA
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 excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Canonical has been a remote-first company since its 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.
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Software Engineer Jobs at Canonical Jobs
Align your experience with Canonical's stack
Canonical's Software Engineer roles center on Linux internals, Go, Python, and cloud-native infrastructure. Tailor your resume to reflect open-source contributions and systems-level work, not just general software development experience.
Verify your degree field matches specialty occupation
H-1B approval depends on your role qualifying as a specialty occupation. For Canonical's engineering roles, a degree in computer science, software engineering, or a closely related field is the baseline USCIS reviewers expect to see.
Target roles marked as remote or globally distributed
Canonical operates as a fully distributed company. Software Engineer postings often don't list a fixed U.S. office location, which can affect how your Labor Condition Application is filed with the DOL. Clarify work location during the offer stage.
Use Migrate Mate to filter open Software Engineer roles
Canonical lists Software Engineer openings across specializations like cloud, kernel, and platform. Use Migrate Mate to browse current postings filtered by visa sponsorship eligibility so you're only applying to roles where H-1B support is confirmed.
Prepare for a lengthy distributed interview process
Canonical's hiring pipeline typically involves multiple async and live technical rounds over several weeks. Get your references, portfolio, and open-source project links organized early so delays on your end don't slow an already extended process.
Understand cap timing before accepting an offer
H-1B petitions are subject to an annual cap with a lottery window that opens each March. If you receive an offer outside that window, work with your employer to confirm whether cap-exempt filing applies or whether you'll need to wait for the next cycle.
Software Engineer at Canonical jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
Find Software Engineer at Canonical JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Does Canonical sponsor H-1B visas for Software Engineers?
Yes, Canonical sponsors H-1B visas for Software Engineer roles. The company hires globally and has supported engineers through the H-1B process, covering employer-side filing responsibilities including the Labor Condition Application with the DOL and the I-129 petition with USCIS. Sponsorship is not automatic on every posting, so confirm the position's eligibility during your initial recruiter conversation.
Which visa types are commonly used for Software Engineer roles at Canonical?
The H-1B is the primary visa type for Software Engineers at Canonical seeking U.S. work authorization. Because Canonical is a UK-founded company with global operations, some engineers may also explore L-1 intracompany transfer visas if they've worked at Canonical abroad first. Your specific situation, employment history, and citizenship determine which pathway is most viable.
What qualifications or experience are expected for Software Engineer roles at Canonical?
Canonical's Software Engineer roles typically expect strong proficiency in Python or Go, deep familiarity with Linux systems, and comfort working in distributed, open-source environments. Many postings favor engineers with public open-source contributions or experience in cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, or Ubuntu-adjacent tooling. A relevant bachelor's degree or higher is standard for H-1B specialty occupation eligibility.
How do I apply for Software Engineer jobs at Canonical?
You can find and apply for Software Engineer roles at Canonical through Migrate Mate, which filters active postings by visa sponsorship availability. Canonical's application process is fully remote and typically starts with a written application or async screening, followed by technical assessments and live interviews. Having your GitHub profile, open-source work, and technical references ready before you apply speeds up the process.
How do I understand the timeline for H-1B filing after receiving an offer from Canonical?
The H-1B cap lottery registration opens each March for an October 1 start date. If Canonical extends an offer and your target start date falls within that cycle, your employer must register you before the window closes. USCIS issues selection results within weeks of the lottery close, and the full petition is filed after selection. Factor in four to six months from offer to work authorization start when planning your timeline.
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