Developer Relations Engineer

About Canonical and Ubuntu

As the publisher of Ubuntu, Canonical serves millions of developers building for the cloud, IoT, and data science. Our mission is to make open source easier and more reliable for innovators and enterprises.

We are creating a new Developer Relations team to engage directly with open-source communities and developer-centric organizations. This team will communicate our vision and products for improved open-source development experiences, while also establishing a robust feedback loop from these audiences to shape our offerings and priorities.

The Developer Relations Engineer Role

A Developer Relations Engineer at Canonical is a technical expert, strategist, and communicator with a deep empathy for developers. This role blends practical engineering skills with firm diplomacy across organizational boundaries, engaging both internally and externally. Like our audience, a Developer Relations Engineer is driven by an insatiable curiosity to find better ways to get things done, constantly seeking to improve the status quo.

You will be a problem-solver and inventor, understanding people's needs and adept at adapting tools to meet them. Staying current with tech trends is crucial, as you will provide insights and guidance while fostering innovation within the community.

To enhance your application, please review our advice on how to get a job at Canonical.

Location and Work Environment

We are building our initial Developer Relations Engineer team with members across Europe, Middle East, African, and American time zones. Canonical has been a remote-first company since 2004, offering a distributed work environment with twice-yearly in-person team sprints.

What Your Day Will Look Like

• Participate in team product meetings, contributing expertise and insights from strategy to day-by-day development progress.
• Maintain conversations with developer community members across various platforms like IRC, social media, product forums, and meet-ups.
• Collaborate with colleagues in other teams to establish commonality and consistent approaches.
• Help solve specific technical problems identified by users or internal colleagues.
• Contribute to technical documentation to ensure developer users' needs are comprehensively met.
• Work on technical articles, presentations, or workshops.
• Identify new opportunities and directions for improving the developer experience we provide.
• Present at conferences, meetups, or other technical events.

What We Are Looking For In You

A strong Developer Relations Engineer candidate will possess:

• Demonstrable passion for and engagement in open-source software as a programmer or developer.
• Experience with real-world challenges in developing and deploying software using Linux.
• Practical hands-on experience with Linux software packaging, including Snaps, debs, charms, rocks, PIP, and containers.
• A deep understanding of current software packaging issues and trends within the Linux ecosystem.
• A history of contributing to open-source communities, software, and documentation.
• An engaging, vivacious speaking and presenting style.
• The ability to work effectively, tactfully, empathetically, and confidently in contexts where different parties have varying perspectives, needs, and understandings.
• A proven ability to build trust, relationships, and confidence.
• Willingness to travel globally twice a year for company events, as well as to upstream and partner events.

Additional Skills That You Might Also Bring

• Previous experience in a developer advocacy or community role.
• In-depth familiarity with Ubuntu and the Canonical ecosystem of products.

What We Offer You

Canonical offers a comprehensive compensation package, shaped by geographical location, experience, and performance, reviewed annually. In addition to base pay, we provide a performance-driven annual bonus and a range of benefits reflecting our values and ideals, balanced to meet local needs 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 and recognition rewards.
• Annual holiday leave, maternity, and paternity leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Opportunities to travel to new locations to meet colleagues from your team and others.
• Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long-haul company events.

Key skills/competency

• Developer Relations
• Open Source
• Linux
• Community Engagement
• Software Packaging
• Technical Communication
• Public Speaking
• Diplomacy
• Problem Solving
• Developer Advocacy