Jobs / United States / Canonical USA INC
Junior Linux Kernel Engineer - Ubuntu
Canonical USA INC · 🇺🇸 Home based - Worldwide
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 1 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Feb 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 1 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
A verdict summarises public evidence; it is not legal advice and never a guarantee — the employer and the immigration authority decide. Sign in to factor in where you can already work.
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Sponsor Radar — Canonical USA INC
The US Department of Labor certified 1 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Feb 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 1 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Canonical USA INC →
About the role
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. Every year we select new junior professionals into the Canonical Kernel Team, to work on the Linux kernel for Ubuntu. If you’ve enjoyed operating systems in your coursework or current role, you are confident in your ability to write high quality C and possibly Rust, and are ready to take the plunge and see how it all works, then this would be a great place to pursue your next career stage. We are a global team working to ship the world's most widely used Linux kernel, across the very latest silicon and cloud, where you can apply and grow your software engineering skills. The Canonical Kernel Team builds and maintains all supported Ubuntu Linux kernels for a variety of platforms and architectures from small embedded devices to standard desktop/server systems to large-scale cloud environments. In your first year you will tackle serious initiatives, which include but are not limited to: • Optimized solutions for key Silicon and Cloud partner platforms • Developer platforms such as Raspberry Pi and RISC-V • Enabling Ubuntu on a wide range of embedded systems • Security hardening and exploit mitigation • Third-party driver integration and distribution, such as graphics • Expanded driver support for bleeding-edge PC platforms We select candidates that are recent university graduates or early career professionals who are enthusiastic to develop kernel-level software in multiple areas including security updates, patching, and testing. The successful candidate will have a background in software engineering, be motivated to work in a distributed team and willing and able to travel globally twice a year for company engineering events. These are full-time positions available to prospective or recently graduated students. Location: We have home-based Kernel Teams in every timezone. The role entails • Collaborate regularly and proactively with a globally distributed team • Learn from senior mentors to demystify the inner workings of the Linux kernel and how it is distributed • Work closely with external silicon, cloud, or hardware manufacturer delivery teams on bleeding-edge platforms • Diagnose and resolve issues in the kernel reported by customers, the community, and discovered by your own rigorous testing • Take personal responsibility for the delivery of various flavors of the Ubuntu Linux kernel • Improve tooling and automation for delivery and test of Ubuntu Linux kernels • Submit, review, and apply kernel patches, working with both internal and external upstream maintainers What we are looking for in you • Well-organized and motivated self-starter able to thrive in a remote work environment • Professional manner with colleagues, business partners, and the open-source community • Ability to communicate effectively in English, both written and verbal • Programming experience in C and/or Rust • Familiarity with version control practices, ideally with git • Understanding of operating system kernel fundamentals • Ability to travel twice a year for company events of up to two weeks length Nice-to-have skills • Interes