Secure Software Engineer for Security-Centric Engineering Teams

Secure Your Future with Us

This is a general track for security-focused engineering in every team, across all levels of seniority. If you are already an exceptional security-focused software engineer, apply here to take your career to the next level.

Most product engineering teams include one or two spaces for dedicated security-oriented software engineers. Their role is to challenge the entire team to think more deeply about security. They contribute to the product as engineers too, but their primary focus is to improve security through state-of-the-art practices - from table-top threat model exercises to architecture reviews, from extended security testing with fuzzers and static analysis tools to external security analyst liaison.

We also build products that are entirely motivated by security technology and requirements, such as our AppArmor kernel investments and our hardening, compliance, and certification toolkits for Ubuntu.

As we handle long-term security response and hardening for the entire operating system and open source universe, 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.

These roles encompass all aspects of product security, including feature development, vulnerability response, proactive security, and open source community participation. All security roles interact closely with many other Canonical engineering and development teams, customers, and partners across the open source community.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define, implement, and document new security features
• Lead security-oriented thinking in a product engineering team
• Analyze, fix, and test vulnerabilities in Canonical and open source software
• Contribute to Ubuntu and upstream projects to benefit the community
• Audit and analyze source code for vulnerabilities
• Integrate new tools in our security infrastructure, pipelines, and processes
• Achieve and retain various security certifications
• Extend and enhance Linux cryptographic components - specifically with modules such as OpenSSL/Libgcrypt - with the features and functionality required for country-specific compliance such as FIPS and CC certification
• Work with external partners to develop CIS benchmarks
• Design and develop hardening automation for Ubuntu
• Monitor the security industry for new developments
• Develop, test, and maintain new software capabilities
• Provide guidance and support to other engineering teams

What We Are Looking For:

• 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
• Drive and a track record of going above-and-beyond expectations
• A thorough understanding of common categories of security vulnerabilities
• Modern engineering techniques to find and fix them
• Familiarity with open source development tools and methodologies
• Skill in one or more of C, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Ruby, or PHP
• Experience as a security champion
• Experience driving security within a wider SDLC 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
• Result-oriented, with a personal drive to meet commitments
• Ability to travel twice a year, for company events up to two weeks each

Bonus Skills:

• Clear and effective communication with the team and Ubuntu community members
• Experience working with Linux Kernel
• Security Certification experience and knowledge in FIPS and/or CC
• Experience with OVAL (Open Vulnerability Assessment Language)
• Knowledge of and familiarity with low-level Linux cryptography APIs
• Demonstrated high learning ability
• Performance engineering experience

Why Choose Us:

• 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