Solution Architecture Manager

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 on a daily basis. We recruit globally and set a very high standard for people joining the company, expecting excellence to be the best at what we do.

Canonical has been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004. Work at Canonical is a step into the future, challenging you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game. Canonical provides a unique window into the world of 21st-century digital business.

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.

The Role of a Solution Architecture Manager at Canonical

This is an opportunity to run a field engineering team, helping customers understand and implement Canonical's open source solutions in public clouds and their own data centers. We work across the entire spectrum of cloud offerings, from Ubuntu itself to virtualisation and private cloud, Kubernetes, and the implementation of sophisticated open source solutions such as MLOps platforms, data platforms and more. We are rapidly expanding the range of open source solutions we offer and deliver, moving into new industries like telco, finance, health care and media, where we design and develop new open source solutions to meet their needs.

We believe that Engineering Managers should be outstanding engineers themselves, comfortable troubleshooting technical issues and engaging in technical presales conversations with customers. While they contribute to project delivery, their technical contributions are less significant than their ability to shape the team’s direction, focus, and delivery. We grow management skills and train engineers, who are interested in soft skills, to be managers.

The Field Engineering team comprises our cloud solutions architects at Canonical, working directly with customers to design private and public cloud solutions fitting their workload needs. The portfolio includes on-premise cloud solutions such as Openstack, MicroCloud and Ceph, and solutions deployable either on-premises or in public clouds such as Kubernetes, Kubeflow, Spark, PostgreSQL, etc. The team works hands-on with technologies by deploying, testing, and handing over solutions to our support or managed services team at project completion. Managers and team members also participate in presales conversations to provide technical advice during the sales process.

A Solution Architecture Manager is responsible for line management and career guidance. The ability to develop engineering talent, represent your team technically, and drive collaboration with other teams and customers are all critical. You are also expected to actively participate in technical presales to help our department achieve quarterly goals. This role will be home based, managing a team in your time zone.

What Your Day Will Look Like

• Lead and develop a team of Field engineers, ranging from graduate to senior, in the areas of Presales and Professional Services
• Solve customer problems by promoting our technologies and being a trusted advisor
• Work remotely in a single major time zone
• Coach, mentor, and offer career development feedback
• Identify and measure team health indicators
• Implement disciplined engineering processes
• Represent your team and product to stakeholders, partners, and customers
• Develop and evangelise great engineering and organisational practices
• Plan and manage progress on agreed goals and projects
• Be an active part of the leadership team, collaborating with other leaders

What We Are Looking For In You

• Knowledge of cloud computing concepts & technologies, such as Kubernetes, Openstack, AWS, GCP, Azure, Ceph, etc.
• Practical knowledge of Linux and networking
• Experience in technical presales
• You are a dynamic person who loves to jump in new projects and interact with people
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
• Passion and a track record of developing and growing people
• Experience in leading, coaching and mentoring engineers
• Organised and able to ensure your team delivers timely, high quality results
• An exceptional academic track record from high school and, preferably, university as well
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time. Field Engineers attend internal company events, external tech events and customer meetings.

Additional Skills That You Might Also Bring

• Second language - Spanish or French preferred
• Python knowledge
• Experience collaborating with external partners
• Experience collaborating with several internal teams and providing stakeholder feedback for engineering roadmaps

What We Offer You

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 recognise outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus. 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 Programme
• Opportunity 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

• Cloud Architecture
• Open Source Solutions
• Team Leadership
• Presales Engineering
• Kubernetes
• Openstack
• Linux Administration
• Customer Engagement
• Strategic Planning
• Mentorship