Senior Software Engineer, Docker

• 6+ years of experience building backend software, with recent demonstrated hands-on Go (Golang) proficiency. We are looking for strong backend and platform engineering experience for this role
• Strong understanding of operating systems (macOS, Windows, or Linux), including system APIs and behavior
• Demonstrated ability to design modular, maintainable system components that scale across teams
• Ability to debug complex system-level issues and improve reliability and performance
• Experience designing modular, maintainable components used by other teams
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work through ambiguity
• Excellent communication skills, including written documentation and technical design discussions
• Willingness to learn Go and contribute to a Go-based codebase
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Desirable

• Join the Docker Desktop team - we are shaping the experience behind one of the most loved tools in modern software development!
• In this role, you will focus on the desktop and operating system layer of Docker Desktop
• You’ll work on installers, updaters, system services, and OS-level integrations across macOS and Windows, improving reliability, performance, and user experience across the full lifecycle of the product
• The successful candidate will have strong operating system fundamentals and experience building or maintaining desktop or system-level software
• For this role, you must be comfortable and experienced working closely to the OS, debugging complex issues, and improving how software installs, starts, and runs on user machines
• You’ll operate with high ownership, communicate clearly through documentation, and are comfortable driving work in a highly autonomous environment
• Design, develop, and maintain lifecycle components, including installation, update, startup, and system services
• Improve reliability and performance of Docker Desktop across macOS,Windows and Linux environments
• Work on OS-level integrations, permissions models, and system behavior such as admin vs admin-less installs
• Debug and resolve complex issues related to startup, crashes, and system interactions
• Collaborate with platform and feature teams to ensure seamless integration with shared components
• Contribute to documentation, technical design discussions, and knowledge sharing across the Desktop ecosystem
• Write high-quality code with strong test coverage and support healthy engineering practices
• 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
• Docker considers sponsorship on a case-by-case basis based on business needs