Docker, Inc
Principal Software Engineer, Developer Tools (US West Coast)
United States · Principal
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 25 days ago
PythonJavaGoRustCode ReviewAWSGCPAzureCloud PlatformsDockerKubernetesTerraformCI/CDPrometheusGrafanaDevOpsSite Reliability EngineeringPlatform EngineeringMachine LearningLLMsAgentic AIAI OrchestrationA/B TestingCybersecurity
About the role
- Docker has been one of the most loved brands in developer tooling, trusted by more than 20 million monthly users and over 20 billion container image pulls.
- As AI agents redefine software development, Docker is at the center of that shift, providing the sandboxed environments, verified images, and secure infrastructure that make autonomous workflows trustworthy by default.
- Docker seeks a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical vision and architecture for our internal Developer Tools team.
Responsibilities
- Lead authoring of SDLC tenets in partnership with other principal engineers, Security, and Infrastructure and build the mechanisms those tenets bind to (design gates, code review gates, pipeline standards, visibility)
- Design highly available, scalable infrastructure for hosting developer tools, agents, and platform services
- Drive technical decisions on tooling choices, provider strategies, build/deploy substrate, and agent orchestration frameworks
- Partner with Senior Manager and product leadership to align technical architecture with business objectives and productization opportunities
- Systems Design & Implementation
- Architect and build Docker's internal developer platform, the self-service substrate enabling teams to scaffold, deploy, and operate services with minimal friction
- Design and implement CI/CD and build infrastructure that supports Docker's SDLC tenets and GitOps deployment patterns
- Design integration points between developer tools and existing infrastructure (CI/CD pipelines, observability platforms, deployment systems)
- Define and enforce the golden path, the concrete, left-to-right walkthrough of how Docker builds software, and identify where tooling closes gaps vs. where human process does
- Drive technical standards for measuring developer tool effectiveness: adoption metrics, productivity gains, pipeline performance, and developer satisfaction
Requirements
- 10+ years software engineering experience with 3+ years in Staff or Principal Engineer roles
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Proven track record architecting and operating developer-facing platforms, internal tools, or developer productivity systems at scale
- Production experience with cloud-native infrastructure including Kubernetes, observability systems (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki), and deployment tooling
- Experience designing self-service platforms, developer portals, or golden path tooling that enable other teams to move faster
- Working knowledge of AI/ML technologies and hands-on experience with LLM APIs or AI agent development
- Strong communication skills with ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Track record of technical mentorship and elevating engineering teams' capabilities
- Deep expertise in CI/CD systems, build infrastructure, and GitOps deployment patterns
- Exceptional product and platform mindset considering developer experience, business outcomes, and technical/security trade-offs
- Ownership mentality with bias for action and iterative delivery in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
- Comfortable with autonomous work in distributed, remote-first teams across multiple time zones
Nice to have
- Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar AI agent integration standards
- Background in DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering domains
- Contributions to open source developer tooling, platform engineering, or observability projects
- Experience productizing internal platforms into commercial offerings
- Deep knowledge of security, compliance, and operational best practices for production systems
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code frameworks (Terraform, Pulumi) and multi-cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- Track record driving org-wide adoption of developer tooling and engineering standards
- Proficiency in Go (preferred), Rust, Java, or Python with strong software engineering fundamentals
Skills
- invisible by default, indispensable once adopted, and measurable in the workflows engineers already use.
- Define technical approach for productizing successful internal developer tools into customer-facing offerings
- Foster culture of technical excellence, experimentation, and rapid prototyping within the Developer Tools team
- Serve as primary technical contact and thought leader for developer tooling across Docker's engineering organization
- Review existing tools in production and understand what's working, what isn't, and the technical lessons learned
- Define and document technical architecture for the
Compensation
- Technology stipend equivalent to $100 USD net/month
Benefits
- Home office setup
- 16 weeks of paid Parental leave (after 6 months of employment)
- Technology stipend equivalent to $100 USD net/month
- PTO plan that encourages you to take time to do the things you enjoy
- Training stipend for conferences, courses and classes
- Medical benefits, retirement and holidays vary by country
- Define the long-term technical vision and architecture for Docker's developer tooling platform spanning platform engineering, CI/CD, and AI-powered tools
Company info
- we are a growing start-up and want all employees to have a share in the success of the company
- The more inclusive we are, the better our company will be.
Equal opportunity
- equal opportunity.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Docker considers visa sponsorship on a case-by-case basis based on business needs.
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This listing is sourced directly from Docker, Inc's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.