Principal Software Engineer, Developer Tools (US West Coast)

Docker is a globally distributed, remote-first team building tools that define how software gets built and delivered. They are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical vision and architecture for their internal Developer Tools team, focusing on enhancing the software development lifecycle with AI integration and self-service platforms.

Responsibilities:

• 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
• 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)
• 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
• 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

Requirements:

• 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
• 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