Senior Software Engineer, Docker
Docker Desktop, East Coast
$184.6-260.7k
Offers equity
More information about location
App development platform
Open for applications
App development platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$184.6-260.7k
Offers equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To simplify the lives of developers building world-changing apps.
Role
Who you are
- The successful candidate has strong systems and OS fundamentals and thinks like a platform engineer—designing modular, predictable components that scale across teams
- They bring sound technical judgment, contribute thoughtfully to architectural discussions, and use data to guide decisions
- They collaborate effectively across engineering groups and are comfortable owning ambiguous, cross-cutting problems that shape the long-term health of Docker Desktop
- 5+ years of experience building backend or systems software, ideally in Go or similar languages
- Experience working on cross-platform desktop applications or lifecycle components (installers, updaters, system services)
- Demonstrated ability to design modular, maintainable system components that scale across teams
- Comfortable working with observability, telemetry pipelines, performance metrics, and system health diagnostics
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work through ambiguity and cross-cutting technical challenges
- Excellent communication skills for cross-team collaboration, design reviews, and technical documentation
- Understanding of operating system internals, installers/updaters, virtualization, networking, or OS-level APIs
- Experience with CI/CD systems, build pipelines, or release engineering workflows is a plus
- We know that great candidates don’t always meet 100% of the qualifications listed. If you're excited about this role and believe you can have an impact, we encourage you to apply—even if your experience doesn’t perfectly align with every requirement
What the job involves
- In this role, you will design, develop, and maintain the systems that define the Docker Desktop experience end to end
- You’ll improve update and install reliability, reduce startup time, strengthen diagnostics, refine shared platform components such as settings and feature flags, and contribute to the architectural evolution that accelerates development across all Desktop teams
- Design, develop, and maintain core lifecycle components of Docker Desktop, including installation, update, startup, and shared platform systems
- Collaborate closely with product teams to ensure seamless integration with shared platform components
- Contribute to documentation, knowledge sharing, and technical discussions that raise the clarity and quality of engineering within the Desktop ecosystem
- Write high-quality code with strong test coverage (unit, integration, and end-to-end) and support healthy engineering practices across the team
- Collaborate with our Delivery team on CI, release pipeline reliability, and lifecycle automation improvements that support faster and safer Desktop releases, especially when cross-team coordination is required
- First 30 Days
- Meet your team, your onboarding buddy, and key collaborators across Docker Desktop
- Set up your development environment and become familiar with the Desktop Platform architecture, lifecycle systems, and key internal components
- Contribute your first small changes—bug fixes, reliability improvements, or performance tweaks
- Participate in design discussions and pair programming to gain exposure to our tooling and workflows
- First 90 Days
- Drive or co-drive a larger feature, from design to development
- Present findings, technical proposals, or insights to the team through proposal reviews or internal demos
- Influence roadmap priorities based on what you’ve learned about the system’s strengths, gaps, and opportunities
- One Year Outlook (First Year)
- Deliver measurable impact with the team
- Lead architectural or cross-cutting platform initiatives that improve development velocity or user experience
- Help shape long-term technical direction with well-considered proposals and influence cross-team engineering practices
- Become a go-to engineer for complex issues and a trusted partner to teams building on top of the platform
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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