Some benefits, but ruined by toxic CEO - Site Reliability Engineer Canonical Employee Review

2.0
Feb 9, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many employees are genuinely talented and motivated, and are great to work with. Work-from-home culture and effectiveness is one of the best in the industry, as Canonical was 90% WFH even before the pandemic. Working on Ubuntu can be rewarding if you are invested in Open Source.

Cons

Nearly all of the company's problems trickle down from its toxic, micromanaging CEO. Mark will inject himself into all levels of the company, will dictate specific implementation details, and will challenge and intimidate people on minor topics which should be worked out with line managers, not the CEO. He likes to single out and humiliate employees in public settings. The current candidate interview process is 15 steps long, includes writing an essay about how great Canonical is, and ends with personal interviews and vetting by Mark. All positions, no matter the seniority or role, now require a BA, even for lateral moves within the company. As a result of all of these, hiring has cratered in the last few years. If you do get hired, base salary is average at best, and extended benefits such as matching 401(k) are nonexistent.

Explore other reviews about Canonical

5.0
Apr 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

very good. happy so far

Cons

could be better, like the time of application to final round

2.0
May 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Met some interesting people, had some interesting conversations.

Cons

Was constantly hearing bad stories about upper management. I only experienced the CEO expressing minor annoyance and paranoia a couple of times. My line manager always seemed to be treading water, fixated on dev-ops ceremonies, and didn't respect the opinions of his peers. The guy who was the "expert" for my field practised management by spreadsheet and was completely out of his depth, always obsessing about his approach to the work and inflicting his opinion on everyone else. Spent too much time having to plan for travel or hear about everyone's travel plans. Wasted so much time in the company's ongoing recruitment drive which pushes most of the work of interviewing and filtering candidates onto regular employees.

3
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All