Staff Software Engineer, Agentic Platform

Docker, Inc

Staff Software Engineer developing foundational infrastructure for AI-driven workflows at Docker. Building core agent execution runtime and cloud infrastructure for the Agentic Platform.

Posted 5/28/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $170,350 - $275,550 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudDistributed SystemsDockerGoGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaKubernetesOpen SourceOraclePostgresPythonRedisRustTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Join Docker's Agentic Platform team to build the foundational infrastructure powering the next generation of AI-driven workflows.
You'll be working on the core agent execution runtime, orchestration primitives, and the cloud infrastructure that keeps the Agentic Platform running 24/7.
This is a high-ownership role: you won't just build systems, you'll run them, respond when they fail, and drive continuous improvement across the stack.
This is a greenfield opportunity to shape how agents are built and operated at scale.
You'll work alongside seasoned engineers, collaborating with partner teams across AI infrastructure, developer experience, and platform reliability.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years of professional, hands-on, full-time software engineering experience in backend, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
Cloud Platform Expertise (AWS/OCI/Azure/GCP): Proven, hands-on experience operating production services in AWS or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure compute, networking, managed services, IAM, and cost management. This is a must-have; the Agentic Platform is a cloud-native service running 24/7.
Service Ownership in a Cloud Setting: You have owned production services end-to-end — on-call, incident response, SLO definition, and post-mortems. You don't just build; you run what you build.
Distributed Systems Design: Deep understanding of fault tolerance, consistency, observability, and scalability in cloud-native environments
Backend Engineering Proficiency: Strong proficiency in at least one backend language used for systems work — Go, Python, Rust, or Java
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Strongly Preferred: Go: Professional proficiency in Go — Docker's primary language for backend systems.
Infrastructure as Code: Experience with Terraform for cloud infrastructure provisioning and Helm for Kubernetes application packaging and deployment.
Data Infrastructure: Experience with PostgreSQL and Redis / Pub-Sub patterns for state management, caching, and event-driven agent workflows.
MCP & Agent Tooling: Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) server design and integration.
Container & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalent — especially in the context of agent sandboxing and secure code execution environments.
AI-assisted development tools: Familiarity with Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, Windsurf, etc. and the developer personas using them.
Agent Evaluation: Experience with LLM-as-judge frameworks, behavioral regression testing, and golden dataset management.
Agent Systems Experience: Hands-on experience building or operating AI agent systems — including multi-agent orchestration, tool use, memory systems, or agent evaluation frameworks.
Open Source: Contributions or community engagement on relevant open source projects.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Freedom & flexibility; fit your work around your life
Designated quarterly Whaleness Days plus end of year Whaleness break
Home office setup; we want you comfortable while you work
16 weeks of paid Parental leave (after 6 months of employment)
Technology stipend equivalent to $100 USD net/month
PTO plan that encourages you to take time to do the things you enjoy
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
Remote-first culture, with offices in Seattle and Paris

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Hard Skills & Tools

backend engineeringcloud platform expertisedistributed systems designinfrastructure as codedata infrastructurecontainer orchestrationAI-assisted development toolsagent systems experienceservice ownershipprogramming in Go

Soft Skills

collaborationcontinuous improvementincident responseproblem-solvingownership