Principal Software Engineer, Developer Tools (US West Coast)

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. From solo founders to the world's largest companies, developers rely on Docker to build, share, and run their applications across our suite of products including Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, and Docker Scout.

We are a globally distributed, remote-first team building the tools that define how software gets built and delivered. 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. This is a rare opportunity to establish how software is designed, built, shipped, and operated at Docker. With the addition of AI we are modernizing our SDLC and building the mechanisms that make the right way the easy way for every engineer.

You'll own the technical strategy across four interconnected pillars:

Platform Engineering & Self-Service: Design and build the internal developer platform that empowers teams across Docker to unblock themselves, rapidly scaffolding, prototyping, deploying, and operating their own services and tools.

CI/CD & Build Systems: Define Docker's technical approach to continuous integration, delivery, and build infrastructure. Establish architectural standards for pipeline tooling, GitOps deployment patterns, build substrate, and release engineering.

As Principal Software Engineer , you'll partner with engineering leadership across Docker, principal engineers, Security, Infrastructure, and the service teams to author the SDLC tenets that underpin all of this work, and build the mechanisms those tenets run through.

Reporting to the Sr Manager of Developer Tools, you'll collaborate closely with engineering leadership across Docker, product engineering teams, platform teams, and ultimately customers as internal tools evolve into product offerings.

What Would Make Someone Successful in This Role

You're a technical leader who excels at the intersection of developer experience, platform engineering, and systems design. You think in platforms and golden paths, building once and enabling dozens of teams to move faster. You have strong opinions on what makes developer tools great: invisible by default, indispensable once adopted, and measurable in the workflows engineers already use.

You have deep experience across the breadth of the developer tooling stack, CI/CD, build systems, observability infrastructure, and developer platforms, and working knowledge of LLM integration and AI agent development. You understand the nuances of internal platforms: designing for adoption, not mandate; plugging into existing workflows before standing up new ones; and earning trust through data before expanding scope.

You have exceptional judgment on when to build custom solutions versus integrate existing tools, and you're comfortable navigating a rapidly evolving landscape across both AI and developer infrastructure. You balance technical excellence with pragmatism, shipping iteratively while maintaining high quality bars. Most importantly, you lead through influence and mentorship, elevating the entire engineering organization's technical capabilities.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define the long-term technical vision and architecture for Docker's developer tooling platform spanning platform engineering, CI/CD, and AI-powered tools

• 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)

• Establish architectural patterns, technical standards, and best practices across the developer tooling stack

• 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

• Establish reliability, security, and performance standards across developer tooling including SLOs, monitoring, incident response, and cost management

• Design integration points between developer tools and existing infrastructure (CI/CD pipelines, observability platforms, deployment systems)

Strategic Impact & Innovation

• Evaluate emerging technologies across developer tooling, platform engineering, AI/LLM, and agent frameworks to inform Docker's technical strategy

• 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

• Lead cross-functional technical discussions influencing company-wide developer tooling architecture

• Define technical approach for productizing successful internal developer tools into customer-facing offerings

Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor senior and staff engineers on platform engineering, CI/CD patterns, design, and AI/LLM integration

• Lead design reviews and technical decision-making across all developer tooling work

• 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

• Collaborate with platform teams (Infrastructure, Security, Agentic Platform, Supply Chain Security) to establish shared technical standards and integration patterns

• This role may require participation in an on-call rotation to provide support outside of standard business hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as needed.

Qualifications

Required:

• 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

• Deep expertise in CI/CD systems, build infrastructure, and GitOps deployment patterns

• 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

• Proficiency in Go (preferred), Rust, Java, or Python with strong software engineering fundamentals

• Exceptional product and platform mindset considering developer experience, business outcomes, and technical/security trade-offs

• Strong communication skills with ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Track record of technical mentorship and elevating engineering teams' capabilities

• 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

Preferred:

• 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

What to Expect

First 30 Days

• Understand Docker's current developer tooling landscape: AI tools, CI/CD state, platform engineering gaps, and the foundational SDLC gap

• Meet with engineering leadership, principal engineers, and key technical stakeholders across product engineering, Security, Infrastructure, and Agentic Platform

• Conduct deep technical assessment of current developer tooling infrastructure to identify opportunities and constraints across all four pillars

• Review existing tools in production and understand what's working, what isn't, and the technical lessons learned

• Partner with Senior Manager to define initial technical priorities and 90-day technical roadmap across pillars

First 90 Days

• Define and document technical architecture for the Developer Tools platform across: system design, technology choices, integration patterns, and operational model

• Ship first production deliverable, either an extension of existing tooling or a net-new tool with architectural patterns and standards that scale to future work

• Establish technical foundations for the self-service platform: deployment pipeline, security controls, and cost management

• Lead or contribute to the SDLC tenets working session with principal engineers, Security, and Infrastructure

• Define success metrics and instrumentation strategy for measuring developer tool adoption, effectiveness, and productivity impact

• Create architectural decision records and best practices guides for teams building on the platform

First Year Outlook

• Establish mature technical architecture for the Developer Tools platform with multiple production tools demonstrating value

• Build production-ready self-service platform enabling multiple teams to build, deploy, and operate their own tools with minimal friction

• Define and implement technical standards for measuring developer productivity improvement: design quality, commit frequency, PR velocity, deployment reliability, and incident response times

• Lead technical strategy for productizing successful internal tools into customer-facing offerings

• Position Developer Tools as Docker's technical center of excellence for developer productivity, with regular technical talks, demos, and knowledge sharing

• Define multi-year technical roadmap including advanced platform capabilities, expanded AI tooling, and emerging technology adoption

Docker considers visa sponsorship on a case-by-case basis based on business needs.

Perks

• Freedom & flexibility; fit your work around your life

• Designated quarterly Whaleness Days plus end of year Whaleness break

• Home office setup; we want you comfortable while you work

• 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

• Equity; we are a growing start-up and want all employees to have a share in the success of the company

• Docker Swag

• Medical benefits, retirement and holidays vary by country

• Remote-first culture, with offices in Seattle and Paris

Docker embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our company will be.

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