Graduate Software Engineers

We are hiring 2025 and 2026 Graduate Software Engineers into engineering teams around the world. As a global platform company we offer a wide range of software engineering challenges, in both open source products and commercial business systems. We have teams that work in a variety of languages, typically Python, Golang, Rust, C/C++, JavaScript and of course… Bash. We work from the very lowest levels of the Linux system - BIOS and boot loaders, firmware, kernel and drivers, all the way up to desktop applications and containers. We work on tiny devices like the Raspberry Pi and new RISC-V boards, all the way up to supercomputers, clouds and Kubernetes clusters. We work on compilers and toolchains, and we work on security, cryptography, performance and documentation. Some of our teams focus on packaging thousands of pieces of software, others focus on deep contributions to a single body of code.

If you are excited about the potential that open source has for humanity and the enterprise, you have outstanding results in your academic career, and you are excited to contribute to the open source stack, this is the best way to apply to Canonical. We will work with you to identify teams and projects that would be interesting and a good fit for your skills and motivations. The process is highly competitive, it will require effort and excellence to succeed if you apply here.

Most of our engineering teams work from home. We try to align a single team in a single time zone - EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), APAC (Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean), and AMER (North, South and Central Americas). Even though you work from home, we try to ensure you always have colleagues alongside to coach and mentor you, and for the companionship of shared problem solving and pair programming. Larger projects have multiple teams and might span the globe. We work with the open source community and specialize in building teams that work well in the ‘fishbowl’ of open source engineering. This is full time work, five days a week, often solving hard problems with significant responsibility. We don’t generally work weekends and nights and we do enjoy good holidays but we also expect productive and intense engagement Monday to Friday.

We bring all our engineering teams together in person twice a year for a deep ‘sprint’ with other teams to stimulate discussion and enable a wide range of career development paths. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate and develop your skill in software, learn about a wide range of technologies, make a meaningful impact to open source, and see some very interesting new cities that you might never otherwise get to visit.

If you find the open source stack amazing, and you have been a consistent high-performing student in your school and university, then this will be a challenging and exciting start to your career., * Shaping the roadmap for your product at global sprints every six months

• Focusing on design and user experience, even for developer tooling and command line apps
• Writing high quality, resilient and performant code, potentially serving millions of demanding daily users
• Working towards mastery of key programming languages and Linux system knowledge
• Engaging with users and the open source community through code reviews and issue trackers
• Responding to customer issues as a priority, develop an understanding of enterprise requirements
• Developing skills and awareness of security in software design and implementation, 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
• Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events, Select… Please confirm that your first university degree (bachelor or undergrad) completed, or is expected to complete, in 2025 or 2026.* Select…

This fast-track process is only for graduates who completed their first degree in 2025 or 2026. Describe your experience with Linux and open source* Describe your best personal software project, outside of curriculum or work* Describe any significant leadership or organizational / team responsibility that you took on during your education*

Which areas of engineering are most interesting to you? (Choose up to three) *

Ubuntu Desktop Ubuntu Server Ubuntu Core Community Embedded Linux Commercial systems Data science AI/ML Cloud Containers Distributed Systems Virtualisation Storage Kubernetes IoT Robotics Python Golang Kernel Silicon enablement and drivers Distro Graphics Consulting engineering Hardware SAAS Devops Web front-end Web back-end Databases

Which programming languages do you feel most confident using (Choose up to three)? *

Python JavaScript Golang C C++ Rust Java Bash

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. Website LinkedIn Profile In which country do you currently work?* Select…

Please select your current location from the dropdown. 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…

Please note that if you require any accommodation for travel that relates to a physical disability, do let us know during your hiring process and we will be happy to discuss your requirements further. Please confirm that you have read and agree to Canonical’s Recruitment Privacy Notice and Privacy Policy.* Select…

Recruitment Privacy Notice

Privacy Policy Which gender do you identify as?* Select…

This information is being requested to help us maintain equal opportunities, best practices and comply with legal requirements. The submission of this information is entirely voluntary. The information you provide will not be visible to, or used by, our decision makers, and will not subject you to any adverse treatment. Please indicate your nationality: Select…

This information is being requested to help us maintain equal opportunities, best practices and comply with legal requirements. The submission of this information is entirely voluntary. The information you provide will not be visible to, or used by, our decision makers, and will not subject you to any adverse treatment. Please indicate your race or ethnicity:* Select…

This information is being requested to help us maintain equal opportunities, best practices and comply with legal requirements. The submission of this information is entirely voluntary. The information you provide will not be visible to, or used by, our decision makers, and will not subject you to any adverse treatment.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Canonical’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. Gender Select… Are you Hispanic/Latino? Select… Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

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.

A “recently separated veteran” means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran’s discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An “active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran” means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An “Armed forces service medal veteran” means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985. Veteran Status Select…

• Exceptional academic track record from both high school and university
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics or another STEM discipline with programming courses
• Confidence to get started and deliver high quality code in one of Python, Rust, C/C++, Golang, JavaScript or Java
• Experience with Ubuntu or another Linux distribution
• Track record of going above-and-beyond expectations to achieve outstanding results
• Result-oriented and organized, with the drive to meet commitments
• Personal projects in technology and software engineering beyond the curriculum
• Professional written and spoken English
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility, and accountability
• Personal responsibility and accountability
• Thoughtfulness, self-awareness and the ability to reflect and develop
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year for company events up to two weeks long, * Upstream open source contributions
• Packaging and Linux distribution contributions - Debian, Fedora, Arch, Nix or another
• Leadership and organization skills
• Presentation and writing skills
• Business and commercial interests

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 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 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., 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.