Principal Software Engineer, AI Tools and Security (Seattle or SF Bay Area)

Responsibilities

• Define the technical solution for a new product
• Help shape the product with peers in Product and Design
• Mentor other technical team members
• Be the technical point of contact for the team
• 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 of backend engineering experience, including extensive work on production-grade, distributed systems at scale.
• Technical leadership across multiple teams or domains, with a proven ability to drive architectural vision, set technical direction, and influence long-term product strategy.
• Exceptional product and platform mindset-you think beyond implementation details to how technology shapes developer and business outcomes.
• Expertise in designing and evolving large-scale, cloud-native systems, with deep knowledge of distributed computing, service-oriented architecture, and performance optimization.
• Demonstrated experience building secure, resilient, and high-throughput backend services, with a strong grasp of reliability engineering principles (SLOs, observability, incident response).
• Fluency in Go (preferred) or another modern systems language (Rust, Java, C++, etc.), with the ability to lead technical design reviews and mentor others in language-specific best practices.
• Strong grasp of software engineering fundamentals-CI/CD, testing strategy, source control, and deployment automation-applied in complex, multi-service environments.
• Proven track record of technical mentorship and cross-functional collaboration, enabling teams to deliver high-impact, high-quality software efficiently.
• Deep experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• Ownership mentality with a bias for action and iterative delivery, balancing short-term impact with long-term architectural health.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable operating autonomously in distributed, remote-first teams, and leading through influence rather than authority.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Bonus

• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and microservices architecture
• Prior experience with OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar LLM APIs, and the MCP specification

First 30 Days

• Meet team members
• Build context about the problem space and prior art
• Provide feedback on current exploration and propose next steps in line with Product and Design

First 90 Days

• Work with Product and Design on defining the product
• Attend customer calls
• Meet people across the company
• Help grow the team by participating in hiring loops

One Year Outlook (First Year)

• Bring the product to market

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

• Compensation & Equity
• United States: $198K - $319K + equity
• POSTING INFORMATION
• Open vacancy: This posting is for an existing open role.
• AI in hiring: Docker may use AI-assisted tools during our recruiting process.
• Interview recordings: Candidates will be invited to opt in to interview recordings to support interviewer calibration and consistent evaluations. Recordings are optional and require explicit consent.

Perks & Benefits

• Remote-first by design - Work from your home, with offices in Seattle and Paris for connection and collaboration.
• Flexibility that fits your life - We trust you to manage your schedule while delivering great work.
• Time to recharge - Generous PTO, designated quarterly Whaleness Days, and a designated end-of-year Whaleness break.
• Home office support - Set up your workspace for comfort and success.
• Technology stipend - Equivalent to US$100 net per month to help support your work.
• Learning & development - Annual stipend for conferences, courses, certifications, and continued learning.
• Parental leave - 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months of employment.
• Equity for all full-time employees - Share in Docker's long-term success as we continue to grow.
• Comprehensive benefits - Medical, retirement, and paid holidays vary by country.
• Docker swag - Because representing the whale never gets old.

#LI-REMOTE