---
title: 'Graduate Software Engineer, Open Source and Linux, Canonical Ubuntu at Canonical'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/graduate-software-engineer-open-source-and-linux-canonical-ubuntu-canonical-9pc334czz1g3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Graduate Software Engineer, Open Source and Linux, Canonical Ubuntu at Canonical

- **Company:** Canonical
- **Location:** Worldwide
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/canonical/jobs/8142329

## 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 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 2025 and 2026 Graduate Software Engineers into engineering teams around the world. As a global platform company we offer a wide range of software engineering challenges, in both open source products and commercial business systems. We have teams that work in a variety of languages, typically Python, Golang, Rust, C/C++, JavaScript and of course... Bash. We work from the very lowest levels of the Linux system - BIOS and boot loaders, firmware, kernel and drivers, all the way up to desktop applications and containers. We work on tiny devices like the Raspberry Pi and new RISC-V boards, all the way up to supercomputers, clouds and Kubernetes clusters. We work on compilers and toolchains, and we work on security, cryptography, performance and documentation. Some of our teams focus on packaging thousands of pieces of software, others focus on deep contributions to a single body of code.

If you are excited about the potential that open source has for humanity and the enterprise, you have outstanding results in your academic career, and you are excited to contribute to the open source stack, this is the best way to apply to Canonical. We will work with you to identify teams and projects that would be interesting and a good fit for your skills and motivations. The process is highly competitive, it will require effort and excellence to succeed if you apply here.

Most of our engineering teams work from home. We try to align a single team in a single time zone - EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), APAC (Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean), and AMER (North, South and Central Americas). Even though you work from home, we try to ensure you always have colleagues alongside to coach and mentor you, and for the companionship of shared problem solving and pair programming. Larger projects have multiple teams and might span the globe. We work with the open source community and specialize in building teams that work well in the 'fishbowl' of open source engineering. This is full time work, five days a week, often solving hard problems with significant responsibility. We don't generally work weekends and nights and we do enjoy good holidays but we also expect productive and intense engagement Monday to Friday.

We bring all our engineering teams together in person twice a year for a deep 'sprint' with other teams to stimulate discussion and enable a wide range of career development paths. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate and develop your skill in software, learn about a wide range of technologies, make a meaningful impact to open source, and see some very interesting new cities that you might never otherwise get to visit.

If you find the open source stack amazing, and you have been a consistent high-performing student in your school and university, then this will be a challenging and exciting start to your career.

Location: This is a Globally remote role.

## The role entails

- Shaping the roadmap for your product at global sprints every six months
- Focusing on design and user experience, even for developer tooling and command line apps
- Writing high quality, resilient and performant code, potentially serving millions of demanding daily users
- Working towards mastery of key programming languages and Linux system knowledge
- Engaging with users and the open source community through code reviews and issue trackers
- Responding to customer issues as a priority, develop an understanding of enterprise requirements
- Developing skills and awareness of security in software design and implementation

## What we are looking for in you

- Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics or another STEM discipline with programming courses
- Confidence to get started and deliver high quality code in one of Python, Rust, C/C++, Golang, JavaScript or Java
- Experience with Ubuntu or another Linux distribution
- Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
- Result-oriented and organized, with the drive to meet commitments
- Personal projects in technology and software engineering beyond the curriculum
- Professional written and spoken English
- Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
- Personal responsibility and accountability
- Thoughtfulness, self-awareness and the ability to reflect and develop
- Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long

Nice-to-have skills

- Upstream open source contributions
- Packaging and Linux distribution contributions - Debian, Fedora, Arch, Nix or another
- Leadership and organization skills
- Presentation and writing skills
- Business and commercial interests

## 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 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.](https://canonical.com/careers/diversity/identity)

#LI-remote

## About Canonical

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Canonical publishes Ubuntu and delivers trusted open source software, security, and support to enterprises worldwide.
- **Entity Type**: Private (founder-funded, bootstrapped)
- **Headquarters**: Not publicly available in provided sources (commonly reported as London, UK)
- **Founded**: 2004
- **Founders**: Mark Shuttleworth

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Enterprise open source software, cloud infrastructure, and security.
- Target customers: B2B – enterprises, cloud providers, developers, and government organizations.
- Mission statement: "We amplify the impact of open source" – helping people and organizations tap into the power of open source to develop new products with speed and confidence.

## Products & Services
- **Ubuntu**: The world’s most popular Linux distribution for desktops, servers, and IoT.
- **Ubuntu Pro**: A single subscription providing security maintenance, compliance features, and support for the entire open source portfolio.
- **OpenStack**: Canonical’s distribution of the open source cloud platform for private and hybrid clouds.
- **Kubernetes (MicroK8s, Charmed Kubernetes)**: Lightweight and production-grade Kubernetes solutions.
- **Landscape**: Systems management and compliance tool for Ubuntu deployments.
- **LXD**: System container manager for running full Linux systems in containers.
- **Netplan**: Network configuration utility for Linux.
- **Vanilla Framework**: Open source CSS framework developed by Canonical’s web and design teams.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – not applicable (bootstrapped). Annual revenue – not publicly available.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Founder Mark Shuttleworth is the primary investor. Partners include major cloud providers and hardware vendors (not explicitly listed in provided sources).
- **Growth Signals**: Scaled engineering headcount from 600 to 950 engineers (per blog post). Remote-first since inception in 2004. Over 80 nationalities represented.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Ubuntu ecosystem**: De facto standard for cloud and developer environments.
- **Remote-first culture**: Fully distributed since 2004, attracting global talent.
- **Open source leadership**: Deep involvement in communities (OpenStack, Kubernetes, etc.) and strong brand trust.
- **End-to-end portfolio**: From OS to applications, with consistent security maintenance for up to 15 years.
- **Rigorous hiring**: Manual, human-reviewed process that prioritizes culture fit and potential.

## Strategic Focus
- Expand enterprise adoption of Ubuntu Pro and managed open source services.
- Maintain leadership in cloud, container, and edge computing.
- Strengthen security and compliance offerings for regulated industries.
- Continue investing in open source communities and upstream projects.

## Why Work Here
- **Remote-first**: Truly distributed company with no central office; team members work from anywhere.
- **Culture**: Values of reliability, accessibility, precision, and adroitness. Emphasis on collaboration and open source ethos.
- **Small teams, big impact**: Engineering organized into nimble squads (950 engineers across ~50 teams) prioritizing agility and deep expertise.
- **Diversity**: Team from over 80 nationalities; equal opportunity employer.
- **Career progression**: Focus on impact and potential over rigid experience thresholds; opportunities to shift roles if a better fit is found.
- **Perks**: Personal development budget, learning opportunities, and a global, inclusive environment.

## Sources
1. [canonical.com/careers](https://canonical.com/careers)
2. [canonical.com/company](https://canonical.com/company)
3. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/canonical](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/canonical)
4. [canonical.com/blog/hiring-the-canonical-way](https://canonical.com/blog/hiring-the-canonical-way)

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