OpenStack Spotlight Carlos Gonzales and Josh McJilton

Carlos Gonzales gives some insight about his role as a Engineer Manager for our Ecosystems and his outlook about meeting people at OpenStack.

What does your department do at Canonical?

My department develops, supports and sustain the OpenStack distribution as part of the Ubuntu package and Canonical’s Cloud product and service offering. In addition, my team develops and supports charms related to the OpenStack deployment that is readily available in the jujucharms.com store.

Who are you interested in speaking with at OpenStack in Austin ?

I am Interested in talking to OpenStack newbies, community members, and tech leads who are venturing out in learning OpenStack/Opensource software development, looking to partner with Canonical OpenStack and Juju, and users who have use cases for OpenStack deployments. Also, looking forward to meeting people who are passionate about user experience, security, and software quality.

Why should people want to speak with you at OpenStack in Austin?

People would be interested in talking to me because I can provide them with a perspective about OpenStack and Juju that benefits their project and/or organization. In addition, I can discuss Canonical’s culture and environment with people who are interested in applying for job within Canonical. For the SME’s in the industry, they can look for me to help them get connected with Canonical’s experts in MAAS, Juju, OpenStack, Landscape, Autopilot, Bootstack, etc…

Top tip for people attending their first OpenStack event ?

My tips are 1) take advantage of the tracks and sessions, 2) visit the expo to explore the options for OpenStack deployment, and 3) meet new people and build new relationships in the community.

What made you decide to join Canonical?

I was very interested in working on Opensource software, Ubuntu, OpenStack, and Cloud technologies. Canonical also provided me the flexibility from a work/life balance standpoint which was very limited or lacking in the traditional corporate environment.

What keeps you at Canonical?

The innovative culture, the community based model, and flexibility of the work environment. It really made me focus better on my role, the new relationships I am building daily, and the new cloud technologies instead of being distracted by events that may happen in the ‘office’ or ‘commuting’ from a traditional sense.

Where is your department located?

The department is located in the BlueFin building in downtown London, England. However, most of my team are spread across the US and UK.

What types of employees are you looking for?

We are looking for passionate and diligent people who have the innovative drive to learn new things, build healthy relationships and provide leadership by thinking outside the box. It also helps to have Juju (Orchestration), OpenStack, & DevOps knowledge and experience.

What advice would you give to people interested in working at Canonical?

My advice are the following:

• Talk to other Canonical employees and listen to their experience.
• Determine if the culture and environment fits their needs and career direction.
• Get involved with the Ubuntu and OpenStack community to get some experience in the Open source community.

Josh McJilton is a Cloud Consultancy Manager at Canonical and he was excited to take some time to speak to us about the OpenStack Summit as well as his views about Canonical.

What does your department do at Canonical?

The Cloud Consulting team applies Canonical’s unique point of view and cutting edge technologies to create solutions that enable customer and partner success. Working face to face with customers and partners, we design and deploy solutions that use advanced tooling and automation to deliver IT capabilities on a fundamentally different set of economics.

Why should people want to speak with you at OpenStack in Austin?

We do incredibly interesting work with some of the most innovative companies on the planet. We use some of the coolest technology on the market, and we get to do it with an incredibly smart group of colleagues. It isn’t always easy, but truly rewarding endeavors rarely are.

Top tip for people attending their first OpenStack event?

I’ll bend the rules and offer two: prepare in advance and have fun. First, there is a tremendous amount of content available across the Summit. It’s impossible to take it all in. Read up in advance and have a plan for what you want to learn. You’ll get more out of it if you know what you’re looking to learn. Second, have a good time. Events like these are a great place to meet new people and build your professional network. Austin is great city, so you couldn’t ask for a better setting to make a few new friends. As a native Texan and 15 year resident of Austin, please don’t hesitate to stop me in the halls for taco, BBQ, beer, or even career advice.

What made you decide to join Canonical?

Amazing technology, incredibly smart people, and the chance to do tremendous things for our customers.

What keeps you at Canonical?

Our vision for the future.

Where is your department located?

Globally distributed. Our team is 100% work from home. When we’re not on site working with customers, we work from home, or wherever we can find a solid internet connection and a steady place to balance a laptop.

What kind of candidates are you looking forward to speaking to at OpenStack?

We’re looking for candidates with a broad ranging foundation of technical skills. From system administration to advanced networking to scripting, the best consultants are usually people who can call on a number of different skills to solve problems they’ve never seen before.

What types of employees are you looking for?

We need people who love to learn, and who view their own success as fundamentally tied to that of their customers.

What advice would you give to people interested in working at Canonical?

Know your stuff. Know our story. Have an opinion.

Interested in career opportunities with Canonical? Visit us at OpenStack Summit Austin (link to page) or check out our career openings (Link to page)

You can also follow us at @UbuntuWantsYou on Twitter