Security Software Engineer

• Define, implement, and document new security features
• Lead security-focused initiatives within a product engineering team
• Analyze, fix, and test vulnerabilities in open source software
• Contribute to Ubuntu and upstream open source projects to benefit the community
• Audit and analyze source code for vulnerabilities
• Integrate new tools into our security infrastructure, pipelines, and processes
• Achieve and retain various security certifications
• Extend and enhance Linux cryptographic components to meet country-specific compliance requirements, such as FIPS and Common Criteria (CC) certifications
• Work with external partners to develop Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks
• Design and develop hardening automation for Ubuntu
• Stay up to date with trends and developments in the security industry
• Develop, test, and maintain new software capabilities
• Provide guidance and support to other engineering teams on security best practices, 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. 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
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events, Select… What security project or products have you contributed to before, and what was your role?* What interactions have you had with the open source community? Have you made any contributions to open source packages?* Which programming languages are you most familiar with, and how would you describe your level of competence with those languages?* How did you perform in mathematics at high school?* Select… How did you perform in your native language at high school?* Select… Please share your rationale or evidence for the high school performance selections above. Make reference to provincial, state or nation-wide scoring systems, rankings, or recognition awards, or to competitive or selective college entrance results such as SAT or ACT scores, JAMB, matriculation results, IB results etc. We recognise every system is different but we will ask you to justify your selections above.* What was your bachelor’s university degree result, or expected result if you have not yet graduated? Please include the grading system to help us understand your result e.g. ‘85 out of 100’, ‘2:1 (Grading system: first class, 2:1, 2:2, third class)’ or ‘GPA score of 3.8/4.0 (predicted)’. We have hired outstanding individuals who did not attend or complete university. If this describes you, please continue with your application and enter ‘no degree’.*

Universities around the world score degrees in different ways. Please indicate your result, or expected result if you are close to graduation, along with information about the grading system. We require all colleagues to meet in person 2-4 times a year, at internal company events lasting between 1-2 weeks. We try to pick new and interesting locations that will likely require international travel and entry requirement visas and vaccinations. Are you willing and able to commit to this?* Select…

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A “disabled veteran” is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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Apply here if you are an exceptional security-focused software engineer, passionate about open source, and excited by Canonical’s products and mission.

This role requires the ability to be productive in a globally distributed team through strong self-discipline and motivation. It also involves mandatory international travel at least twice a year, typically for one week., * An exceptional academic track record from both high school and university

• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or STEM, or a compelling narrative about your alternative path
• A track record of going above and beyond expectations
• Thorough understanding of the common categories of security vulnerabilities and how to fix them
• Knowledge of modern software engineering techniques
• Familiarity with open source development tools and methodologies
• Skill in one or more of C, C++, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Ruby, PHP, or JavaScript/Typescript
• Experience as a security champion
• Experience driving security within a wider SSDLC process
• Professional written and spoken English
• Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred)
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Passion, thoughtfulness, and self-motivation
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Results-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments

Optional skills we also value

• Clear and effective communication with both the team and Ubuntu community members
• Experience working with the Linux kernel
• Experience with security certifications and knowledge of FIPS and/or Common Criteria (CC)
• Experience with OVAL (Open Vulnerability Assessment Language)
• Knowledge of cryptographic modules such as OpenSSL and Libgcrypt
• Knowledge of low-level Linux cryptography APIs
• Demonstrated ability to learn quickly
• Performance engineering experience

School Select… Degree Select… Discipline Select…

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is 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 75+ 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.

Canonical is looking for exceptional security-focused software engineers to be integrated across product teams. While they also contribute to the product as engineers, their primary focus is to challenge the entire team to think more deeply about security through state-of-the-art practices such as threat modeling, table-top exercises, architecture and design reviews, static analysis tools, and fuzzing, among others.

These roles encompass all aspects of product security, including feature development, vulnerability response, proactive security, and open source community participation. Engineers in these roles collaborate closely with other Canonical teams, customers, and partners across the open source ecosystem.

Each product engineering team at Canonical reserves one or two openings for security-oriented software engineers. We also develop a number of products driven entirely by security needs, such as our AppArmor kernel investments and the Ubuntu Security Guide (USG). As the publisher of Ubuntu, we also handle long-term security response for the entire operating system and open source ecosystem. Working with tens of thousands of upstreams means that we need to be fluent in every major programming language and design, build, and adopt sophisticated tools that enable us to work at scale and speed with confidence., 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 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. Canonical has been a remote-first company 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.