Head of Organisational Development

Help define the future of the workplace, with a global, growing open source software company that is a pioneer in remote-first collaboration and employment. We are well known in tech circles as the publisher of Ubuntu, the preferred OS for cloud computing, containers, software engineering and AI/ML data science. With almost every team remote by default, Canonical sets the pace on the 21st-century digital workplace. We're small for a platform vendor, but profitable. Our goal is to be the world’s best, not biggest, global software company.

This is an opportunity for a person with outstanding leadership, organisation and intellect, to build our Organisational Development team that develops and harmonises our management practices. We are now 1,000+ colleagues across 70+ countries. We would like to create a new team to focus on organisational development - specifically to deepen our insights and effectiveness as a remote-first and globally distributed organisation.

The whole world had a taste of remote work in 2020-21, and it has become a source of fascination and debate in business circles. We want to be the best in the world at it. We deeply believe that our mission is best served by hiring people evenly across the globe who are themselves highly motivated by that mission. However, we know that being effective remotely requires discipline and good habits, and we would like to invest in the research needed to understand that, the training and policymaking which enable it, and the selection mechanisms that ensure consistency of behaviours. We'd like to understand what really makes a distributed, remote-first workplace work. We think we're pretty good at this, remote-first for almost 20 years, but we know there is a lot still to understand, and the frontier of possibility continues to move outward. We'd like to invest in research, analytics and tooling which raises the bar even further for remote collaboration, organisation and leadership. Most importantly though we'd like to invest in training and bi-directional communications to ensure that our management team are consistent in setting and maintaining expectations in every team, in every time zone.

So first and foremost this is a role for someone who *wants* to develop managers and leaders, who *wants* to set the pace for distributed company management, who has the drive and the energy and the leadership skills to make that happen across hundreds of teams, and who has ideas to bring to the table for experimentation and evolution.

You will lead one part of a wider People team, a cross-disciplinary group of organisational psychologists, engineers, statistics / analytics experts, talent science and employee relations specialists. We are recruiting globally, and believe we are bringing in outstanding new colleagues in a way that is fearlessly global. Naturally, they come from a wide range of backgrounds, norms and experiences, and our goal in setting up the Org Dev team is simply to lead the leaders to a position of consistent clarity on who we are, how we roll, and how that changes over time.

Location: This role can be held anywhere in the Europe, Middle East or African time zones.

What your day will look like

• Develop and implement an inspiring and comprehensive talent development and culture strategy
• Host our ongoing discussion about management practices, skills, habits and perspectives
• Deliver an exceptional experience for aspiring and existing leaders who want to become trusted Canonical managers
• Own the renewal and activation of values internally and externally
• Create and implement leadership performance indicators and metrics
• Design, develop, and run management curricula
• Own our management skills matrix for performance management, talent assessment, succession planning, mentorship, virtual learning and career development.
• Lead engagement survey focus groups and change initiatives
• Set up a company learning framework for training
• Build and manage a new team of organisational development specialists
• Analyze data and leading trends to better understand career development
• Own Canonical’s personal development budget, currently US$ 2,000 per person

What we are looking for in you

• An exceptional academic track record
• Excellent writing and communication skills
• Experience relevant to have a clear position on remote work and management
• Strong views on the key conditions that create high performing teams 
• Ability to lead, create strategy, develop plans, communicate plans, and drive change across a company
• Analytical and problem solving skills, for data driven decision making
• Experience in people management and being accountable for a budget
• Ability to travel twice, sometimes four times a year, for one or two week company events

What we offer you

Your base pay will depend on various factors including your geographical location, level of experience, knowledge and skills. In addition to the benefits above, certain roles are also eligible for additional benefits and rewards including annual bonuses. Our compensation philosophy is to ensure equity right across our global workforce.

In addition to a competitive base pay, we provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. Please note that additional benefits may apply depending on the work location and, for more information on these, you can ask in the later stages of the recruitment process.

• Fully remote working environment - we’ve been working remotely since 2004!
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
• Annual compensation review
• Recognition rewards
• Annual holiday leave
• Parental Leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues at ‘sprints’
• Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm that is at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open source projects and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do.

We have been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004.​ Work at Canonical is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game. Canonical provides a unique window into the world of 21st-century digital business.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

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