Product Manager - Networking

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 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 for Networking. 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.

Smart Network Interface Cards (Smart NICs, including DPU, IPU, etc.) are getting more functionality and processing power to offload more complex and diverse workloads from the host: networking, storage, and security. Simultaneously, switching and routing network equipment running proprietary network operating systems (NOS) tends to be replaced by whitebox hardware capable of running Linux-based NOS. These changes are prompted by datacentre architecture scalability and composability challenges as well as ever-growing performance requirements. In the process, the industry requires a reliable, open, and easy-to-use operating system to host these functionalities and workloads. Linux is ideally positioned as a kernel, especially with real-time extensions, and as a platform for this ecosystem.

Leveraging and complementing Ubuntu, Ubuntu Core, OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Juju, Canonical is creating a line of products and services that address primary challenges such as security, device management, and orchestration between the Smart NIC, its host, Top of the Rack switches, and gateways. This role encompasses leadership of the product and go-to-market in the Smart NIC and ToR switches sector. It requires an analytical storyteller with a strong sense of message and understanding of the challenges of leveraging Smart NIC and ToR technologies with Linux.

We prefer experienced professionals with software engineering management experience who want to become business executives and entrepreneurs to define product strategy and drive engagement. At Canonical, you will have the opportunity to engage with the broader open-source community and industry-leading partners in developing inspiring Smart NIC and ToR solutions. We’re looking for individuals who can help build a thriving community, contribute to a broad range of technologies, and contribute to the deployment of Canonical products across a broad range of devices and use cases.

This role is an exceptional opportunity for a technology leader in the Networking industry to:

• Lead Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core integration as the OS of innovative Smart NIC products
• Shape the development roadmap for Smart NIC and ToR switches features support
• Engage with the Smart NIC and ToR switches ecosystem and leading customers
• Enable commercial success and lead product direction
• Drive go-to-market strategy and execution

This role encompasses product leadership and go-to-market strategy, ensuring that the product vision is translated into actionable plans and successful market launches, overseeing the entire product lifecycle from conception to delivery, while staying ahead of market demands. Product Managers play a pivotal role in identifying market opportunities, bridging the gaps between technology and business, and fathoming user perception about the product to drive its success in the industry.

He collaborates closely with engineering, design, marketing, sales, and management, to gather insights, align business goals with market needs, and drive the success of their products and contribute to the overall business strategy of the organisation. Product managers in Canonical require a blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, project management skills, and effective communication to successfully deliver a technology product that meets both user needs and business objectives.

We prefer accomplished professionals with software engineering experience who strive to become business executives and entrepreneurs to strategise product development, drive engagement, and promote the open source paradigm.

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region. You will be expected to be located within this region.

The role entails:

• Lead the product development lifecycle, reviewing the priorities and goals for your product.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales.
• Address common challenges across projects, align on priorities, enable informed decisions, and keep business execution on track.
• Conduct market research, analyse industry trends, and gather customer feedback to identify opportunities.
• Communicate your product vision, status updates, and key decisions to ensure alignment and manage expectations.
• Conduct usability testing, analyse user feedback, and iterate on the product to improve the user experience.
• Collaborate with marketing, sales, and support teams to develop go-to-market strategies, create product documentation, and provide training.
• Contribute to the success of our sales team in winning new opportunities, reviewing customer feedback, and participating in customer meetings.

What we are looking for in you:

• Exceptional academic results at high school and university
• Understanding of Linux and the wider open source software community
• Passion to write about technologies and the tech landscape
• A strong work ethic, and personal interests aligned with the open source movement
• For more senior positions, product management experience in the software industry
• Deep understanding of hyperscale and enterprise data centre architecture and challenges related to high parallelism workloads (HPC, AI, and Big Data)
• Strong knowledge of the inner workings of network protocols, their implementation and optimisation at the hardware, kernel, and library layers
• Understanding of computer architectures: x86, ARM, RISC-V
• Familiarity with relevant Smart NIC and ToR switches software, standards, and the market, including trends, ODMs, silicons, cloud service providers, and other key players
• Involvement with Linux networking distribution and software packages, such as SONiC, DENT, FRRouting, VyOS, Open Network Linux (ONL), or Cumulus
• Practical experience with large scale network design, implementation, and operation
• Curiosity, and the habit of continuous learning
• A strong sense of ownership
• Problem solving and the ability to innovate
• Outstanding communication skills in English, both verbal and written
• Ability to travel internationally up to 4 times a year for company events up to two weeks long

Nice-to-have skills:

• Familiarity with particular verticals (e.g. Telco, Finance, Industrial, Automotive)
• Familiarity with the technology ecosystem including Silicon, IHV, ISV, ODM/OEMs, cloud service providers, and channel
• Familiarity with cloud native technologies such as Kubernetes, Docker containers & Snaps
• Familiarity with embedded and connected device technology and ecosystems

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
• 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 Program
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events