Lead Data Governance Engineer

About Canonical

Canonical is a leading provider of open-source software and operating systems for 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 more than 80 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.

About the Role

We are hiring a Lead Data Governance Engineer with a focus on data governance policies, processes, standards, and monitoring in compliance with internal policies and applicable regulatory frameworks, e.g., GDPR, DPA, ISO, etc. A successful candidate will develop Python-based tooling to automate the operations of an internal data mesh solution such as data labeling and quality metrics in a data, access management and data security best practices.

The Data Governance team in the Commercial Systems unit has a mission to enable a secure and well-governed access to comprehensive data sets originating at many internal and external data sources formed in a data mesh. The team works with well-known open-source data governance tools such as Trino and Ranger, defines and executes data governance processes, and democratizes the data at Canonical.

This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

Key Responsibilities

• Define, monitor, and execute data governance policies
• Design, implement, and maintain tooling for automated data mesh operations
• Deploy and operate services developed by the team
• Depending on your seniority, coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback
• Develop and evangelize great engineering and organizational practices

What We Are Looking For In You

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in a technical subject or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
• Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Experience with data quality, governance, and security processes and tools
• Experience with software development in Python and SQL
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills
• Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year, for company events up to two weeks long

Nice-to-have Skills

• Performance engineering and security experience
• Experience with Airbyte, Ranger, Superset, Temporal, or Trino

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
• Employee Assistance Program
• 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.

Key skills/competency

• Data Governance
• Python Programming
• SQL Development
• Data Quality Management
• Data Security Best Practices
• Data Mesh Architecture
• Regulatory Compliance (GDPR, DPA, ISO)
• Open-Source Tools (Trino, Ranger)
• Automation Development
• Policy Definition & Monitoring