Senior Principal Engineer, Central Ops & Systems - Docker

About Docker

Docker is 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 is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer to serve as the technical visionary and architect for our Central Operations and Systems organization — the foundational platform that powers "how Docker does Docker", which includes corporate systems, developer AI/SDLC, infrastructure, reliability, and internal systems. This is one of the most impactful individual contributor roles at Docker, responsible for defining and driving the technical strategy that enables Docker's transformation to an AI-first company.

Responsibilities

Technical Vision & Strategic Planning

• Define and own the multi-year technical vision for Docker's Central Operations and Systems group, encompassing internal AI, developer tools, infrastructure, reliability, and corporate systems.
• Establish strategic plans and objectives for major initiatives, making architectural decisions that ensure Docker's business objectives are met.
• Translate organizational strategy into technical roadmaps that span multiple teams and time horizons.
• Identify and prioritize investments that provide maximum leverage, building capabilities once to increase productivity across the employee base.
• Develop architectural principles and standards that guide technical decisions across the Central Operations and Systems group and influence product engineering teams.

Cross-Company Technical Leadership

• Lead technical vision and implementation for large cross-company programs requiring coordination across all Docker teams.
• Architect the Docker SDLC "Golden Path" for how Dockhands build, manage, and deploy systems and software.
• Drive convergence of fragmented systems by replacing product-specific implementations with shared platform capabilities.
• Establish technical contracts between platform and product teams to enable independent velocity, consistency, and reliability.
• Lead architectural reviews for major initiatives, ensuring alignment with platform strategy and long-term maintainability.

Infrastructure & Developer Experience Architecture

• Define the infrastructure platform vision that removes infrastructure as a bottleneck to innovation, enabling teams to deploy experimental services rapidly.
• Architect standardized deployment patterns encoding best practices for security, scaling, monitoring, and reliability.
• Design infrastructure supporting AI and agent initiatives, including rapid deployment and programmatic environment creation.
• Establish observability standards providing distributed tracing, metrics, log aggregation, and error tracking out of the box.

Technical Excellence & Influence

• Partner with senior managers and directors to drive operations and strategy.
• Mentor and develop Staff and Principal engineers to raise the technical bar across the organization.
• Represent Docker's platform architecture and AI adoption externally through blog posts, conference talks, and community engagement.
• Drive build-vs-buy decisions for critical platform components, evaluating vendor solutions against requirements.

Qualifications

Technical Expertise

• 12+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated expertise across multiple domains (SDLC, AI engineering, corporate systems).
• Proven track record architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems serving millions of users and enterprise customers.
• Expert-level understanding of API design, service architecture, and system integration patterns at scale.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern infrastructure patterns (Kubernetes, service mesh, infrastructure-as-code).
• Knowledge of enterprise security requirements and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001).
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Strategic & Business Impact

• Track record of establishing strategic technical plans that directly enabled business outcomes.
• Experience translating business strategy into technical architecture and roadmaps.
• Understanding of SaaS business models, enterprise sales cycles, and commercial success factors.

Leadership & Influence

• Proven ability to drive large cross-company technical programs requiring coordination across multiple engineering organizations.
• Experience working with VPs and executives to set and execute technical strategy.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence leadership and drive alignment without direct authority.

Perks & Benefits

• Remote-first by design – Work from your home, with offices in Seattle and Paris for collaboration.
• Flexibility – Manage your schedule while delivering great work.
• Time to recharge – Generous PTO, designated quarterly Whaleness Days, and an end-of-year Whaleness break.
• Home office support – Set up your workspace for comfort and success.
• Technology stipend – US$100 net per month to help support your work.
• Learning & development – Annual stipend for conferences, courses, and certifications.
• Parental leave – 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months of employment.
• Equity – Share in Docker's long-term success.
• Comprehensive benefits – Medical, retirement, and paid holidays vary by country.