Linux Desktop Support Engineer (London UK office)

Description

You would join the company as a Linux desktop support engineer based in the London, UK office, supporting employees and customers and helping with audiovisual setup for office conferences and events.

The company provides open source software and operating systems to enterprise and technology markets. Its platform, Ubuntu, is used in public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Customers include major public cloud and silicon providers and leaders in many industries.

The company is founder led, profitable and growing. It has 1100+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office based roles, and teams meet in person two to four times a year in different locations to plan strategy and delivery.

The work is mostly about relationships. You would be a trusted peer and technical guide to external engineering teams, turning complex open source problems into clear, considerate solutions. Problems range from cloud environment triage to root-cause analysis of kernel crashes. The team is expanding quickly and wants people who enjoy both hard technical problems and building good working relationships with customers.

Responsibilities

• Support customers through remote sessions, tickets and live conversations, understanding their technical blockers and resolving them.
• Work closely with internal engineering teams and regional peers to turn complex code fixes into outcomes customers can use.
• Own your cases from first diagnosis to full resolution, passing them to colleagues or bringing in senior engineers when needed. Keep your commitments and set customer expectations openly and predictably.
• Build a working knowledge of the Ubuntu development process so you can explain realistic timelines for engineering fixes in plain language.
• Write and maintain clear knowledge base articles so lessons learned are shared with the wider open source community.
• Take part in a regular weekend rota to keep support continuous for global partners.

Requirements

• Excellent written and spoken English, with the ability to explain technical detail clearly and warmly.
• Genuine interest in helping people, and the composure and empathy to handle high-pressure technical situations.
• Strong academic record at both high school and university.
• An undergraduate degree in a technical subject, or a convincing account of a different path you have taken.
• A proven record of going beyond what is expected to deliver strong results for teams or customers.
• Hands-on experience supporting Linux systems, plus exposure to at least three of the following: virtualization and cloud (KVM or OpenStack); containers (mainly Docker, LXD/LXC or Kubernetes); block, object or network storage; networking (bonding, firewalls, bridging, switching or MTU tuning).
• A methodical approach to troubleshooting: reading stack traces and logs, spotting OS or application bugs, and guiding customers through the next steps.
• Basic programming logic in any language, enough to read code and work effectively with the company engineering teams.
• An affinity for open source and a passion for technology.

Conditions

You work from the company's London, UK office and act as a key technical support contact for local teams and employees.

Weekend rota participation is required on a regular basis.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and gives every application fair consideration regardless of identity.

Benefits

• Pay takes into account location, experience and performance, and is reviewed annually, or more often for graduates and associates.
• A performance-based annual bonus or commission on top of base pay.
• Recognition rewards and additional benefits that reflect company values, adjusted to local needs.
• Distributed working with team sprints in person twice a year.
• A personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Annual holiday leave, maternity leave and paternity leave.
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Chances to travel to new locations to meet colleagues.
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events.