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