Principal Software Engineer, Docker
Docker Agents
Offers equity
More information about location
App development platform
Open for applications
App development platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
Offers equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To simplify the lives of developers building world-changing apps.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in technical leadership roles (Staff/Principal level or equivalent scope)
- Go Expertise: Strong proficiency in Go (this is absolutely required) - Docker’s primary language for backend systems
- AI/ML Knowledge: Practical experience with large language models (LLMs) and agent development patterns
- System Architecture: Proven ability to design scalable, distributed systems in production environments
- Container Technology: Deep understanding of Docker, containerization best practices, and container orchestration
- Cloud/Platform Depth: Experience building and operating platform services with strong foundations in observability, CI/CD, and security principles
- Operational Excellence: Experience operating and evolving high-availability production systems with a focus on reliability and performance
- Influence & Communication: Exceptional communication skills and ability to influence across technical and business domains
- AI Frameworks: Experience with CrewAI, AGNO, ADK, LangChain/LangGraph or similar AI orchestration frameworks (preferred)
- Python Proficiency: Experience with Python for AI prototyping and tooling (preferred)
- Experience with Kubernetes or container orchestration platforms (preferred)
- Open source contributions and community engagement (preferred)
- Experience with agent evaluation, reliability, and observability techniques (preferred)
What the job involves
- We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer (Docker Agents) to join Docker’s AI engineering team to build the future of containerized AI agents
- Docker containers are the perfect vehicle to host and run AI agents—providing isolation, portability, and reproducibility
- You’ll be working on cagent, our open-source project (https://github.com/docker/cagent), and expanding on it to enable developers to build, deploy, and scale intelligent agents using Docker’s container technology
- This is a greenfield opportunity to shape how developers leverage containers for AI agents at massive scale
- You’ll define the technical vision, lead architecture decisions, and partner with engineers and leaders across Docker to bring containerized agent capabilities into Docker’s developer experience
- Technical Leadership & Architecture: Define and drive the long-term technical strategy for Docker’s containerized agent platform, including core primitives, APIs, and extensibility patterns
- Build Containerized Agent Systems: Design and implement systems that leverage Docker containers as the ideal runtime for AI agents, ensuring isolation, scalability, and portability
- Expand cagent: Maintain and evolve the open-source cagent project, adding new capabilities for containerized agent deployment, orchestration, and lifecycle management
- Agent Runtime Development: Build robust infrastructure for packaging, deploying, and managing agents in containers across local and cloud environments
- Evaluation & Testing: Define evaluation frameworks to measure agent quality, reliability, and production readiness; plus the deployment effectiveness of containerized runtimes
- Reliability & Operability: Establish standards for observability, performance, and operational excellence; lead critical production decision-making and incident learnings as needed
- Rapid Prototyping: Iterate quickly on new agent capabilities and deployment patterns, moving from concept to production efficiently
- Open Source Community: Engage with the cagent community, review contributions, and help grow the ecosystem
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Lead cross-functional technical discussions and influence architectural decisions across Docker’s AI initiatives (including sister teams and platform efforts)
- Mentorship & Enablement: Mentor senior engineers, raise the bar through design reviews, and accelerate team execution through clear technical direction and coaching
- First 30 days
- Integrate into our AI engineering team building containerized agent infrastructure
- Deep dive into cagent’s architecture, project roadmap, and the developer problems we’re solving
- Identify the highest-leverage architectural and execution risks/opportunities; align with stakeholders on priorities
- Contribute initial improvements to cagent and the containerized agent runtime foundations
- First 90 days
- Lead significant platform features or architectural improvements to cagent and our containerized agent ecosystem
- Establish (or materially improve) technical standards for evaluation, reliability, and operability of agent systems
- Drive alignment across internal teams on APIs, integration points, and a cohesive developer experience
- Mentor engineers through design reviews and help accelerate onboarding and execution
- One-Year Outlook
- Drive major architectural decisions for our containerized agent platform that will impact millions of Docker users
- Shape the long-term technical vision and execution plan for Docker’s agent ecosystem (open-source and product surfaces)
- Establish repeatable engineering practices for quality, performance, and operational excellence in agent systems
- Lead initiatives to expand containerized agent capabilities for enterprise use cases and broader platform integrations
- Grow the team’s technical capabilities through mentorship, strategy, and pragmatic delivery
Salary benchmarks
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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