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Senior Principal Engineer, Central Ops & Systems

Docker· General & Administrative
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Remote$219k - $352kFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Senior Principal Engineer and technical visionary for Docker's Central Operations and Systems, defining strategy and architecture across internal AI, developer tools, infrastructure, reliability, and corporate systems to enable Docker’s AI-first transformation and to act as the technical authority on employee experience and internal platforms.

Responsibilities

  • 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.
  • Collaborate with engineering leadership to translate organizational strategy into technical roadmaps across multiple teams and time horizons.
  • Identify and prioritize investments that provide maximum leverage across the employee base.
  • Develop architectural principles and standards to guide decisions across the group and influence product engineering teams.
  • Anticipate future business needs and ensure platform architecture supports evolving commercial models.
  • Lead technical vision and implementation for large cross-company programs requiring coordination across all Docker teams.
  • Architect the Docker SDLC "Golden Path" for building, managing and deploying systems and software.
  • Drive convergence of fragmented systems by enabling shared platform capabilities.
  • Establish technical contracts between platform and product teams to balance velocity with reliability.
  • Lead architectural reviews for major initiatives, ensuring alignment with platform strategy and maintainability.
  • Proactively identify and solve problems affecting critical areas before they become blockers.
  • Define infrastructure platform vision to remove bottlenecks and enable rapid deployment of services.
  • Architect standardized deployment patterns for security, scaling, monitoring, and reliability.
  • Design infrastructure to support AI and agent initiatives with programmatic environment creation and consistent APIs.
  • Establish observability standards with distributed tracing, metrics, log aggregation, and error tracking.
  • Drive cost optimization across platform infrastructure while maintaining performance and reliability.
  • Mentor and develop Staff and Principal engineers; represent Docker’s platform architecture externally (blogs, talks, community engagement).
  • Participate in executive-level discussions on technical strategy and strategic business decisions.
  • Drive build-vs-buy decisions for critical platform components.
  • Potential on-call rotation to provide after-hours support as needed.

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of software engineering experience across multiple domains (SDLC, AI engineering, corporate systems, etc).
  • Proven track record architecting and delivering large-scale distributed systems serving millions of users and thousands of enterprise customers.
  • Broad working knowledge across platform domains with ability to make architectural decisions spanning multiple areas.
  • Expert-level understanding of API design, service architecture, and system integration patterns at scale (in-house vs. vendor).
  • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern infrastructure patterns (Kubernetes, service mesh, IaC).
  • Knowledge of enterprise security, compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001) and their architectural implications.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Skills

Required:Technical vision and strategyCross-company program leadershipArchitecture governanceCloud platforms & infraSecurity & compliance

Benefits

  • Remote-first by design with Seattle and Paris offices for connection
  • Flexibility in schedule
  • Generous PTO, quarterly Whaleness Days, end-of-year break
  • Home office setup support
  • Technology stipend (~US$100 net per month)
  • Annual learning & development stipend
  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months
  • Equity for all full-time employees
  • Comprehensive benefits (medical, retirement, holidays vary by country)
  • Docker swag
Last updated Sep 2, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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Accelerated Container Application Development

Docker is a platform designed to help developers build, share, and run container applications. We handle the tedious setup, so you can focus on the code.

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