Rust Engineering Lead - Linux and Open Source
Canonical, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets.
Our flagship platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT.
We collaborate with the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders across many sectors.
We pioneer global distributed collaboration with colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office-based roles.
Teams meet two to four times a year 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 Rust Engineering Leads of all levels of experience to drive the adoption of Rust across Canonical's offerings, starting with Ubuntu and extending to our own projects and open source initiatives.
We view Rust as a natural evolution for system-level services traditionally written in C or C++ and see opportunities to re-think the foundations of future Linux systems.
We expect the highest engineering standards, strong motivation, and a commitment to home-based, distributed work.
These roles require extensive personal experience with Linux—multiple distributions preferred.
Location: open roles for Rust engineers in every time zone.
Responsibilities
Design and implement well-tested and well-documented software in Rust.
Advocate for Rust adoption in Canonical and upstream projects.
Identify projects and codebases that could be prioritised for Rust adoption.
Debug and fix issues encountered by your users.
Participate in engineering process through code and architectural reviews.
Collaborate with community and colleagues on technical specifications.
Seek improvements to engineering and operations practices.
In some cases, deploy and operate services developed by the team.
Contribute to the success of your product through technical advocacy.
Qualifications
Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university.
Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, STEM, or a compelling narrative about an alternative path.
For more senior roles: experience building, deploying, and operating distributed systems and APIs.
Track record of going above and beyond expectations.
Well-organised, self-starting, and able to deliver to schedule.
Appreciative of diversity, polite and effective in a multi-cultural, multi-national organisation.
Professional manner interacting with colleagues, partners, and community.
Experience designing and writing high-quality Rust software on Linux.
Passion for Linux at the system level.
Professional written and spoken English.
Work ethic and confidence to shine alongside motivated colleagues.
Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability.
Passion, thoughtfulness, and self-motivation.
Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments.
Ability to travel twice a year for company events up to two weeks each.
Nice-to-have skills
Experience developing for Ubuntu.
Experience with LXD, MicroK8s, SnapD, IoT, Juju, Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Pro.
Performance engineering and security experience.
What We Offer
Compensation worldwide based on geographical location, experience, and performance.
Annual performance review and performance-driven annual bonus or commission.
Employee benefits reflecting our values and ideals.
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 publisher of 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 globally and set a very high standard for people joining the company.
Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception.
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.
Seniority level
Mid-Senior level
Employment type: Full-time
Job function: Engineering and Information Technology
Industries: Software Development
#J-*****-Ljbffr