Software Engineering Manager

Job Summary

The Engineering Manager will define the technical vision, code-level strategy, and execution roadmaps for Ubuntu’s platform upgrade architecture. Reporting to the Director of Ubuntu Foundations Engineering, this leader will mentor senior developers, optimize continuous test automation architectures, eliminate system upgrade vulnerabilities, and manage critical upstream engineering collaborations with the Debian project and broader open-source communities.

Qualification

Candidates must meet the following strict academic and foundational standards:

• Academic Records: An exceptional documented academic track record spanning both secondary high school and university periods.
• STEM Foundation: A formal undergraduate university degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related STEM discipline (or a compelling, demonstrable professional track record illustrating an equivalent alternative path).
• Communication Metrics: Flawless professional written and verbal English communication skills, critical for navigating a globally distributed, asynchronous engineering framework.

Experience

Candidates must demonstrate direct technical competence within operating system architectures and team management:

Technical Domain Competencies

• Systems Software Mastery: A strong, practical background in software engineering, low-level systems programming, and foundational operating system design patterns.
• Linux Distribution Infrastructure: Demonstrated experience developing, maintaining, or operating Linux distribution technologies, software repository archives, package management backends, or automated software distribution models.
• OS Lifecycle Dynamics: A comprehensive understanding of how Linux kernels interact with driver management software, firmware layers, and system-level upgrade trees.

Leadership & Collaboration Track Record

• Engineering People Management: Proven experience formally leading technical software engineering teams, including hiring execution, continuous technical coaching, and performance optimization.
• Distributed Project Coordination: Experience working effectively within geographically distributed engineering environments across multiple cultures and time zones.
• Upstream Contribution (Preferred): Prior history actively contributing code or infrastructure fixes to Debian, Ubuntu, or adjacent upstream open-source software project ecosystems.
• Specialized System Auditing (Preferred): Hands-on experience optimizing codebases for high-concurrency performance, operational reliability, or security vulnerability mitigation.
• Release Engineering (Preferred): Familiarity with automated release pipelines, archive indexing tools, or continuous integration packages.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Vision & Architectural Governance

• Own Package Management Roadmaps: Architect, communicate, and implement the technical vision and long-term release roadmaps for Ubuntu's package management and system lifecycle frameworks.
• Drive Design Assessments: Participate directly in source code design reviews, balancing aggressive feature innovation with the extreme reliability expected from an enterprise Linux base.
• Maintain Platform Stability: Promote and enforce uncompromising engineering baselines for system security, upgrade backward-compatibility, and ledger maintainability.

Team Leadership & Talent Growth

• Manage Core Developers: Provide structural leadership, project management, and daily support to a senior team of package management developers.
• Nurture Career Development: Mentor engineers to expand their system-level technical ownership, open-source community prominence, and organizational footprint.
• Foster Engineering Culture: Cultivate a workplace culture rooted in extreme technical accountability, open-source peer transparency, and continuous delivery improvement.

Delivery Optimization & Cross-Team Synergy

• Deliver Complex Releases: Plan, track, and successfully ship architectural updates across multiple simultaneous Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) and interim release cycles.
• Refine Automated Testing: Drive improvements across automated validation suites, upstream package mirror tracking, and infrastructure test coverage to optimize release quality.
• Build Internal Coalitions: Establish close partnerships with adjacent engineering cells, including Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Cloud Release Engineering, Launchpad, Security, OEM, and Product Management teams.
• Engage Upstream Communities: Actively collaborate with Debian maintainers and open-source infrastructure teams to align engineering goals and reduce cross-distribution fragmentation.

Skills Required:

• Computer / Software / It / Data