Performance Engineer - Open Source

Join to apply for the Performance Engineer – Open Source role at Canonical

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 initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT.

The company is founder‑led, profitable and growing. We have created a new career path for Performance Engineers who bring exceptional clarity to software performance, correctness and efficiency. These roles exist on every engineering team, working across the stack—from kernel to user‑level applications—to drive shared tools, measurement frameworks, analytics and culture.

We also have teams that work with every major silicon vendor and cloud, with a particular emphasis on performance optimisation of the entire stack for each architecture, CPU family or hypervisor. Our goal is to ensure Ubuntu users receive the best performance and efficiency across the entire stack.

Because the engineering culture at Canonical thrives on deep expertise and fresh perspective, performance engineers may move between products every two years to raise the bar for performance across multiple product families.

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• Low‑level CPU insights and assembly language – cache, registers, vectorisation, memory
  
• Kernel performance – scheduling, context switching, hardware acceleration
  
• Distributed systems performance – tracing, debugging
  
• Compiler‑level performance – profile‑guided optimisation, inlining, assembler
  
• Runtime performance – Golang, Python, JVM, Node.js
  
• Database performance evaluation – plans, indexing, data modelling, monitoring
  
• Web‑browser performance – JS, web frameworks, CSS, tracing
  
• Performance measurement tooling – profiling, eBPF, flamegraphs
  
• Benchmarks and performance tools – Phoronix Test Suite, others
  
• Test harnesses – C, C++, Rust, Python, Golang, Node.js, JavaScript
  

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• Drive software performance and correctness in a specific project.
  
• Collaborate with colleagues and the global community.
  
• Work on shared tools and infrastructure for performance measurement, analysis and reporting.
  
• Teach, train and develop performance culture and design skills.
  
• Strengthen test capabilities, harnesses and pipelines.
  
• Analyse systems and code to understand performance and scalability.
  
• Solve problems directly or through influence and leadership.
  
• Review code and technical designs.
  

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• Exceptional academic track record from high school and university.
  
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics.
  
• Demonstrable personal initiatives to measure and improve performance, efficiency and correctness.
  
• Confidence to speak up respectfully and share ideas.
  
• Track record of exceeding expectations.
  
• Leadership and commitment to skills development and mentorship.
  
• Passion for technology demonstrated by personal projects.
  
• Professional written and spoken English with excellent presentation skills.
  
• Experience with Linux (Debian or Ubuntu preferred).
  
• Excellent interpersonal skills, curiosity, flexibility and accountability.
  
• Appreciative of diversity and effective in a multi‑cultural environment.
  
• Thoughtfulness and self‑motivation.
  
• Result‑oriented with a personal drive to meet commitments.
  
• Ability to travel internationally twice a year, up to two weeks.
  

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• Distributed work environment with twice‑yearly in‑person team sprints.
  
• 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.
  

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. xcfaprz Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.