Product Manager - Cloud Native

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.

The company is founder led, profitable and growing.

Canonical’s product management team are technologists who have a passion for delivering products and solutions that help shape market demands while elevating open source software everywhere. This is an application track for a product management position at Canonical on Cloud Native. Apply here if you excel at leadership, communication, and technical vision, and believe you can drive product strategy for the business needs of tomorrow.

We believe that open source is transforming the way that enterprises solve their business needs. Although open source has been around for thirty years, it is only now fundamental to every corner of the software landscape. Going forward we believe open source will have an even bigger impact as it moves into specialised vertical markets. Our goal is to make open source easier, more reliable and more secure for deployment and development. We strive to be the provider of ‘most software to most companies’, starting with Ubuntu but expanding to cover every class of application on every class of compute. To deliver on that ambition, we select product managers for their intellect and strong drive to advance the open source community. Together, we aim to improve open source quality, outreach, and impact. Our product managers set the vision and the direction to ensure teams deliver the right products in the right markets at the right time. They push the boundaries of the technology landscape to identify and deliver products into new and existing market opportunities.

Juju is an open source orchestration engine for software operators that enables the deployment, integration and lifecycle management of applications at any scale, on any infrastructure using charms. Juju is currently used by our clients, partners, and the community to orchestrate both small and enterprise-scale infrastructure and application deployments across a variety of substrates. 

This role is responsible for the commercial strategy and marketing leadership of one of our cloud native operations product areas, including 

• Juju - the open source orchestration engine for software operators that enables the deployment, integration and lifecycle management of applications at any scale, on any infrastructure using charms

• Identity management - defining the way authentication, authorisation and identity governance controls are applied across Ubuntu One SSO and the other Canonical products

• Observability - outlining the strategy for the way Canonical products and charms perform tracing and are able to discern the underlying system health   

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

This role entails

• Lead the lifecycle of the product development by reviewing the priorities and goals for the products you are responsible for.

• Work closely with the engineering leads to oversee the product development process

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales, to address common challenges across projects, to align on priorities, to make informed decisions, and to keep business execution on track

• Conduct market research, analyse industry trends, and gather customer feedback to identify opportunities, and to ensure alignment with Canonical's overall vision

• Develop your team through coaching, mentoring and training

• Establish KPIs for project status reporting and communicate it across Canonical

• Drive execution excellence through continuous feedback and improvement

• Contribute to the development of strategies to create and maintain high performing teams 

• Contribute to the success of our sales team in winning new opportunities, by reviewing customer feedback and participating in customer meetings

What we are looking for in you

• Seasoned product management experience in technical domains related to the usage and/or the management of open source software in the cloud native landscape

• Experiences designing or managing software operations for large scale distributed systems 

• Good understanding of cloud native technologies such as Kubernetes, Docker containers. 

• Comprehensive knowledge of the common enterprise security and compliance requirements in the area of software operations

• Proven ability to lead technical teams and drive their execution to excellence

• Passion to write about technologies and experience in the area of developer marketing

• A strong work ethic, and personal interests aligned with the open source philosophy

• Excellent communications skills in English, both verbal and written

• Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events

Nice-to-have skills

• Experience with CNCF projects, identity or observability systems is a plus.

• Demonstrate an insatiable intellectual curiosity, and be passionate about the future of technology

• Have a strong sense of ownership. All parts of the product's success and your team's success are your responsibility.

• Be a problem solver, have the ability to think out of the box, and demonstrate visionary leadership

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 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 - we’ve been working remotely since 2004!

• 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

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.

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