We are seeking an experienced QA manager with background in open source to lead the Ubuntu QA team at Canonical.
Quality is key to our whole project, but as with many things Ubuntu, QA for the distro is a bit different than QA most other places. In traditional tech companies that deliver a moderate number of products, it is possible to draw up test plans from the original specifications and test strictly against those before releasing.
At Canonical we do perform this type of structured testing for projects that originate here, like Launchpad, Bazaar or the DX components, but for the vast majority of software we ship with Ubuntu this simply isn’t possible. The number of packages in the distrubution is vast and their design can be changed by upstream developers on short notice. This all happens on a 6 month release cycle, which is fast for an operating system, and of course the QA team needs to be working to that schedule as well.
In fact, much of the testing of the Ubuntu platform is currently performed by our early-adopter community, running the Alpha and Beta milestones and reporting bugs. They actually do an impressive job of un-earthing most issues very quickly, but just managing the growing volume of bug reports from that process to ensure we harness its power is a challenge in itself. And unfortunately, that form of testing does have some gaps, esp. for new software or setups that are less common in the community. In this landscape the approach we take to quality assurance must be a hybrid that can draw on the power of the community while continuing to raise formal standards and cover all core components.
We’re looking for someone who can bring new ideas and energy to this task — someone who can bring innovation to quality assurance to match the ongoing innovation that is the Ubuntu project. Are you this person, or do you know someone who might be? Click here to read the posted job description and apply!
And yes, for those who know me and are wondering, what I am describing here is my own current position 
I’m moving to the Information Systems Development Team at Canonical (who work on things like the Ubuntu Shop, training portal and various internal systems) to become their Information Architect. I look forward to working on user-friendly and scalable designs for these systems, but first we need a new QA manager!