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Staff Software Engineer, Docker AI Substrate (Seattle or Palo Alto)

Docker· Engineering
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Palo Alto, CA or Seattle, WA$170.4k - $275.6kFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer role focused on designing and building the core systems for Docker's agentic platform (AI Substrate) in production environments, spanning Go, Kubernetes, multi-cloud deployment, release engineering, and operational ownership.

Responsibilities

  • Design and build the systems that deploy, release, and operate Docker's agentic platform for enterprise customers, in Go and on Kubernetes.
  • Make the platform run consistently across cloud providers and environments, with the security, identity, and network boundaries enterprises require.
  • Own the release and supply chain path so every deployment is reproducible, verifiable, and trusted.
  • Run what you build: production ownership, on-call, SLOs, incident response, and the operational tooling that keeps it boring.
  • Set technical direction with the team's architect and engineering leadership, and work with partner teams across runtime, developer experience, identity, and observability.
  • Raise the bar through design review, testing discipline, and mentorship as the team grows.

Qualifications

  • You have built and operated a cloud control and management plane. Software that provisions, upgrades, and watches infrastructure for many tenants or environments, in production, with a pager. Experience at a cloud provider, a managed-service vendor, or a platform team that stamps out environments.
  • Kubernetes beyond deployment. You have written controllers or operators, understand reconciliation and CRDs, and know why declarative beats imperative at fleet scale.
  • Deep in at least one major cloud. Hands-on with compute, networking, identity, and managed services, and able to pick up a second cloud fast.
  • Production ownership. On-call, incident response, SLOs, post-mortems. You run what you build.
  • Distributed systems design. Fault tolerance, consistency, observability, idempotent reconciliation.
  • Go. Professional proficiency. Docker's backend and all of this team's code is Go.
  • 10+ years of professional software engineering in infrastructure, platform, or cloud services, with the judgment to set direction for others.

Skills

Required:Cloud control and management plane designKubernetes controllers/operatorsCloud provider expertiseProduction ownershipDistributed systems designGo

Benefits

  • Remote-first by design – Work from your home, with offices in Seattle and Paris for connection and collaboration.
  • Flexibility that fits your life – We trust you to manage your schedule while delivering great work.
  • Time to recharge – Generous PTO, designated quarterly Whaleness Days, and a designated end-of-year Whaleness break.
  • Home office support – Set up your workspace for comfort and success.
  • Technology stipend – Equivalent to US$100 net per month to help support your work.
  • Learning & development – Annual stipend for conferences, courses, certifications, and continued learning.
  • Parental leave – 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months of employment.
  • Equity for all full-time employees – Share in Docker's long-term success as we continue to grow.
  • Comprehensive benefits – Medical, retirement, and paid holidays vary by country.
  • Docker swag – Because representing the whale never gets old.
Last updated Oct 14, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Docker

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.

ContainerizationDevOpsCloud InfrastructureSecurityOpen Source
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