Principal Solutions Architect, Docker
United States:$217,000 – $310,000 OTE + equity
More information about location
App development platform
Open for applications
App development platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
United States:$217,000 – $310,000 OTE + equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To simplify the lives of developers building world-changing apps.
Role
Who you are
- Proven experience as a Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Solution Architect in complex enterprise environments
- Excellent communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills
- Experience in managing customer relationships at the technical and business level
- Experience presenting solutions and demonstrations to small and large audiences, virtually and in person
- Experience interfacing with internal product/software teams, including technical support, product, and engineering, to enhance documentation, enablement, and product features to improve customer experience and enablement
- Experience developing application code, and a clear understanding of the challenges developers experience on a daily basis
- Ability to solve technical problems and translate customer experience to actionable feedback for engineering
- Experience developing collateral to assist customers with best-practice adoption
- Solid understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), containers, DevOps, and modern application architectures
- Experience with Docker, container ecosystems, or adjacent technologies strongly preferred
- Development, Agentic AI dev, Software Development Lifecycle and/or Software Supply Chain Security experience strongly preferred
- Must be fluent in English
- Willingness to travel up to 50% domestically and internationally as a senior representative of Docker to prospective clients, customers, and technical alliance partners
What the job involves
- We are seeking a highly consultative Principal Solutions Architect to support our most important customers
- This role is a critical technical position, spanning both product development and pre and post sales customer motions
- You will act as a trusted technical lead and thought leader, partnering closely with Account Executives, Solutions Engineers, Post Sales, and Product teams to drive measurable business and technical value through
- High priority customer technical leadership
- Docker field technical leadership
- This role reports to the Director of Solutions Architecture and operates at the intersection of technical depth, business acumen, and thought leadership
- Work with Docker’s most important customers and cross functional Docker teams to accelerate the customer’s container and AI journeys, focusing on developer workflows
- Engage with customer teams and cross functional Docker teams to gather customer’s technical/business goals and challenges related to their container and AI journey
- Create and manage engagement plans that span existing products and new Docker offerings to achieve critical business goals
- Oversee “design partner” rapid prototyping engagements with Docker engineering and customer teams to validate customer-product fit for new use cases
- Work with Docker teams to create/manage/deliver custom demos and content aligned to customer use cases
- Deliver high-impact enablement and best practices content to customer audiences from developer to C level
- Ability to travel up to 50% domestically and internationally as a senior representative of Docker to prospective clients, customers, and technical alliance partners
- Be a thought leader for a particular area of responsibility both internal and external to Docker, working with fellow Dockhands to create/manage/deliver content
- Gather field feedback from customer teams and Docker pre and post sales teams
- Coordinate with Field CTO and other Solutions Architects to prioritize/contextualize/correlate field requests into a cohesive set of prioritized requests to the product/engineering teams
- Work directly with Docker product/engineering teams on workflows and feature alignment to customer use cases prioritized by revenue impact
- Be customer zero for new functionality produced by Docker product/engineering teams
- Give input on internal technical enablement and customer enablement needs, and review enablement content
- Assist the sales enablement team with internal technical enablement for new products and services
- First 30 days
- You will be welcomed with a first-in-class onboarding experience that includes equipment setup, a sweet swag package, and a collaborative training program
- You will learn how to navigate through award-winning sales tools such as; Salesforce, Outreach, Sigma, and Opine
- Actively engage with senior stakeholders, and manage relationships with clients
- You will work closely with your peers and shadow customer meetings to develop strategies to advocate for our customers
- At the end of your first month, you will have a proficient grasp of the tools and activities necessary to be successful in your role
- First 60 days
- You will be laser-focused on supporting the sales and customer success teams during your second month
- You will have connected with all of your team members
- You will gain in-depth knowledge of Docker’s products and how they impact our customers
- You will have an advanced understanding of tools, activities, and best practices to be successful in your role
- First 90 days
- In month three, you will be confident in your craft and ready to immerse yourself in our customer’s business needs fully
- You will continue efforts to improve messaging, processes, and activities
- Educate our clients about our product roadmap and undertake product training for users
- You will be ready to operate independently at full speed
Our take
Docker supplies a hub and desktop solution to simplify the workflow of app development teams. Originally known for popularising the idea of containerising software, it saw itself outpaced by Kubernetes. However, the company has identified a problem with the growing complexity of containerisation, with some apps consisting of dozens or even hundreds of containers - which is what it now addresses.
Docker has had a difficult time in the past, with 2019 seeing it sell off its enterprise business, reduce its workforce by hundreds, and change its leadership team. As a well known brand and ecosystem for containerisation, however, it aims to lure developers back to its product as well as to take advantage of the growing global demand for app development.
Returning to focus on developers rather than large companies was certainly a gamble, but one that seems to have paid off. The company has returned to profitability and raised Series C funding in 2022, which has been used to hire new talent, ramping up its business, and continuing to develop and refine its product. On top of this bounce back to success, it's also embarked on a series of acquisitions to bolster its business.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
47% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 13 rounds)
Mar 2022
$105m
SERIES C
Mar 2021
$23m
SERIES B
Total funding: $526m
Company benefits
- 100% company paid medical premiums for employees and dependents
- Flexible Time Off Policy
- Employer Paid Holidays
- Generous Parental Leave (after 6 months of employment)
- Home Office Set Up Budget
- Monthly Technology Stipend
- Training Allowances
- Life and Disability Insurance
- Retirement Plans
- Virtual and In-Person Social Events
- Docker Swag
- Quarterly Hackathons
Company HQ
China Basin, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Don Johnson
(CEO)Prior to joining Docker in 2025, Don spent nearly 9 years at Oracle in various Engineering/VP roles. Before that, they spent over 7 years at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer and Principal Engineer.
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