Chief Revenue Officer

About Canonical

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems, with its flagship platform, Ubuntu, widely used in critical enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation, and IoT. We serve the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders across various sectors. Canonical is a pioneer in global distributed collaboration, with over 1000 colleagues in more than 70 countries, operating with a predominantly remote workforce and bringing teams together for in-person strategy and execution sprints twice yearly in diverse global locations.

The Opportunity

Canonical has a significant business opportunity to deliver both infrastructure and business applications to the enterprise market. As companies refresh their data centers, our goal is to be the platform for cloud and apps. As they re-architect business applications to embrace open source, our goal is to deliver the majority of their databases, analytics, messaging, publishing, identity, security, and workflow solutions. We are committed to driving down the total cost of IT by offering efficient price points, targeting a significant global market with the ambition to become a top-tier software supplier to the Global 10,000.

The company is founder-led, profitable, and growing. We are seeking a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to lead our enterprise sales, sales development, partner, channel, alliance, customer success, and field engineering teams. Reporting to the CEO, the CRO will collaborate with senior leadership to drive sustainable growth. Success requires both operational and inspirational leadership, focusing on program, process, and metrics, complemented by charisma and strategic insight into the global dynamics of enterprise software selection and procurement.

We are particularly interested in a leader who is passionate about the impact of open source software. From microcontrollers to high-performance computing, and from cloud infrastructure to edge devices, open source is gaining market share and reputation across all categories of compute and applications. Canonical's opportunity is to deliver this software globally in an efficient, low-cost manner that accelerates progress and maintains a level playing field. We collaborate closely with silicon and cloud providers to maximize performance and integrate their offerings, building trust as the premier source for open source solutions and compute capabilities.

Responsibilities of the Chief Revenue Officer

• Go-to-market strategy: Prioritize sectors and markets, identify organizational gaps, and lead hiring to address them.
• Planning: Challenge teams to develop ambitious, sustainable execution plans and metrics with cascading goals.
• Execution: Review relevant data and adjust course as needed on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
• Sponsorship: Support leaders in closing large deals ($10M+ ARR) with global-10k enterprises and complex tech sector partners.
• Insight: Capture and share patterns, issues, and insights from customers and partners to enhance commercial awareness.
• Staffing: Oversee recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes within the revenue organization.
• Productivity: Design and lead career and skills development, alongside continuous improvement initiatives.
• Culture: Foster transparent communication, accountability, trust, and a strong work ethic.
• Inspirational leadership: Demonstrate and cultivate passion for Canonical’s mission, customers, and the market.

The Revenue Organization

The successful candidate will lead the revenue organization, comprising:

Direct Enterprise Sales

The VP Enterprise Sales will report to the CRO. Responsibilities include setting high expectations for sales ability and performance, hiring sales leaders, defining hiring effectiveness standards, collaborating on annual targets and plans by region, sector, and product, ensuring accurate reporting, and reviewing progress and results regularly. Emphasis is placed on high-quality customer engagement and delight.

Alliances, Channels, and Partnerships

The VP Alliances will report to the CRO, driving strategy and execution for ISVs embedding Canonical solutions, IHVs (e.g., Dell, HP) certifying Ubuntu, silicon providers (e.g., Intel, Nvidia) optimizing open source, cloud partners building ecosystems, and VAR, GSI, and distribution partnerships.

Sector Go-to-Market

While sector GTM leads currently report to the VP Alliances, the overall sector strategy and execution will be the CRO's responsibility. The CRO will determine the organizational structure and is expected to significantly expand sector-specific investments in areas like telco, finance, automotive, energy, retail, and health to meet customer needs and trends.

Field Engineering

The VP Field Engineering will report to the CRO. This team comprises expert implementers focused on delivering solutions, acting as a catalyst for customer adoption and confidence by accelerating the displacement of incumbent providers with Ubuntu and Canonical's open source solutions.

Customer Success

The Head of Customer Success will report to the CRO. This is a new but rapidly progressing organization focused on establishing processes and relationships, with expectations for growth as the portfolio expands and solution sales deepen.

Revenue Operations (Potential Role}

The Head of Revenue Operations may report to the COO or CRO. This team ensures accurate pipeline and progress reporting, maintains contracting standards, facilitates commercial reviews with leadership, and manages MBOs and compensation plans for sales personnel.

Required Experience

• University degree, preferably in CS or STEM with business disciplines.
• Progressive operational and leadership experience in high-growth, recurring revenue, global technology firms.
• Experience leading sales, partnership, or field engineering organizations to maturity and world-class performance.
• Deep insights into enterprise software and infrastructure markets.

Additional Skills And Experience We Value

• Software engineering and architecture experience or skills.
• Industry insights on software trends, strategy, and competition.
• Understanding of open source history, dynamics, strategy, and competition.

What We Offer You

• Compensation is shaped by location, experience, and performance, with annual reviews and potential for more frequent adjustments.
• Performance-driven annual bonus in addition to base pay.
• Global benefits package reflecting company values, with local adaptations for fairness.
• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.
• 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 for colleague meetings.
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a workplace free from discrimination. We believe diversity enhances our work environment and products. All qualified applicants will receive fair consideration regardless of identity.

Key skills/competency

• Chief Revenue Officer
• Enterprise Sales Leadership
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Sales Operations
• Partner Management
• Customer Success
• Open Source Software
• Technology Market Analysis
• Revenue Growth
• Global Business Development