Principal Software Engineer, AI Tools and Security - Docker

About Docker

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’s AI Tools & Security team is building the foundation for the next generation of secure, developer-friendly AI infrastructure. Our flagship product, the MCP Gateway, empowers developers to connect, observe, and secure AI agents and tools across the entire lifecycle—from prototype to production. We’re defining how developers safely harness the power of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in real-world environments.

We’re looking for a Principal Backend Engineer who thrives at the intersection of AI, security, and developer experience. You’ll lead the technical direction of the Gateway and related services, collaborating closely with Product, Design, and Security to deliver elegant frameworks and APIs that developers love to use.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical solution for a new product.
• Help shape the product in close partnership with peers in Product and Design.
• Mentor other technical team members across the organization.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for the team.
• Participate in an on-call rotation to provide support outside 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 experience 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—thinking 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 best practices.
• Strong grasp of software engineering fundamentals—CI/CD, testing strategy, source control, and deployment automation in complex, multi-service environments.
• 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, clearly articulating 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.

What to Expect

• First 30 days: Meet team members, build context on the problem space and prior art, and propose technical next steps with Product and Design.
• First 90 days: Collaborate on product definitions, attend customer calls, connect across the company, and help grow the team through hiring loops.
• First Year: Bring the product successfully to market.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary Range: $198,000 – $319,000 USD base salary + equity.
• Remote-first by design: Work from home, with hub offices in Seattle and Paris for connection and collaboration.
• Flexibility: Autonomy to manage your schedule while delivering impact.
• Time to recharge: Generous PTO, designated quarterly Whaleness Days, and year-end Whaleness break.
• Home office support & Technology stipend: Workspace setup support plus US$100 net per month technology stipend.
• Learning & development: Annual stipend for conferences, courses, certifications, and continuing education.
• Parental leave: 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months of employment.
• Health & Retirement: Comprehensive medical, retirement, and holiday benefits (varies by country).
• Visa Sponsorship: Considered on a case-by-case basis based on business needs.