Principal Software Engineer, AI Cloud
Docker, Inc
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: Remote • Washington • 🇺🇸 United States
Visit company websiteSalary
💰 $232,000 - $319,000 per year
Job Level
Lead
Tech Stack
AWSAzureCloudDistributed SystemsDockerGoGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaKubernetesMicroservicesRustTerraform
About the role
- Define and drive the long-term technical strategy for Docker AI Cloud’s control and data plane services
- Architect highly available, multi-region systems capable of operating seamlessly across multiple cloud providers
- Design APIs and service abstractions that integrate Docker Desktop, Hub, and enterprise cloud services
- Establish standards for reliability, scalability, and observability across the Docker AI Cloud platform
- Lead cross-functional technical discussions and influence architectural decisions company-wide
- Design and implement distributed systems for workload orchestration, service discovery, and lifecycle management
- Build and operate control plane components that manage multi-tenant workloads and cloud networking
- Develop infrastructure that delivers predictable performance, intelligent scaling, and automated failover
- Ensure security, data integrity, and compliance across Docker’s global infrastructure footprint
- Partner with platform and product teams to deliver developer-friendly APIs and cloud experiences
- Align technical direction with Docker’s business objectives for cloud growth and developer platform unification
- Evaluate emerging technologies (e.g., service meshes, container orchestration, edge computing) and guide adoption
- Drive initiatives that reduce latency, optimize cost, and improve cross-cloud performance
- Define metrics and SLAs for Docker AI Cloud’s reliability and scalability
- Mentor senior, staff and principal engineers, fostering technical excellence and growth across teams
- Lead design reviews and guide critical production system decisions
- Drive a culture of operational excellence, ownership, and innovation
- Collaborate with engineering and product leadership to align priorities and resource planning
Requirements
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in technical leadership roles (Staff or Principal level)
- Proven experience designing and building highly scalable distributed systems in production environments
- Deep understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI), including compute, networking, and storage primitives
- Proficiency in Go, Rust, or Java
- Expertise in Kubernetes, microservices, and service mesh architectures
- Strong foundation in observability, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation)
- Experience operating high-availability (99.99%+) production systems
- Exceptional communication skills and ability to influence across technical and business domains.
Benefits
- Freedom & flexibility; fit your work around your life
- Designated quarterly Whaleness Days
- Home office setup; we want you comfortable while you work
- 16 weeks of paid Parental leave
- Technology stipend equivalent to $100 net/month
- PTO plan that encourages you to take time to do the things you enjoy
- Quarterly, company-wide hackathons
- Training stipend for conferences, courses and classes
- Equity; we are a growing start-up and want all employees to have a share in the success of the company
- Docker Swag
- Medical benefits, retirement and holidays vary by country
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard skills
software engineeringdistributed systemscloud infrastructureGoRustJavaKubernetesmicroservicesservice meshinfrastructure-as-code
Soft skills
technical leadershipcommunicationinfluencementoringoperational excellenceownershipinnovation