Principal Software Engineer (Developer Tools)

Join Docker as a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical vision and architecture for our internal Developer Tools team. You will design and build the internal developer platform, establish Docker's technical approach to CI/CD and build infrastructure, and partner with engineering leadership across Docker. This role requires deep experience in developer tooling, CI/CD systems, and cloud-native infrastructure.

• Definir la visión técnica y la arquitectura para el equipo de herramientas de desarrollo interno de Docker, estableciendo cómo se diseñan, construyen, envían y operan los software.
• Diseñar y construir la plataforma de desarrollador interna que empodera a los equipos de Docker para desbloquearse a sí mismos, escalando rápidamente, prototipando, desplegando y operando sus propios servicios y herramientas.
• Definir el enfoque técnico de Docker para la integración continua, la entrega y la infraestructura de construcción, estableciendo estándares arquitectónicos para las herramientas de canalización, los patrones de implementación de GitOps y la ingeniería de lanzamiento.
• You have exceptional judgment on when to build custom solutions versus integrate existing tools, and you're comfortable navigating a rapidly evolving landscape across both AI and developer infrastructure. You balance technical excellence with pragmatism, shipping iteratively while maintaining high quality bars. Most importantly, you lead through influence and mentorship, elevating the entire engineering organization's technical capabilities
• You have deep experience across the breadth of the developer tooling stack, CI/CD, build systems, observability infrastructure, and developer platforms, and working knowledge of LLM integration and AI agent development. You understand the nuances of internal platforms: designing for adoption, not mandate; plugging into existing workflows before standing up new ones; and earning trust through data before expanding scope
• You're a technical leader who excels at the intersection of developer experience, platform engineering, and systems design. You think in platforms and golden paths, building once and enabling dozens of teams to move faster. You have strong opinions on what makes developer tools great: invisible by default, indispensable once adopted, and measurable in the workflows engineers already use
• Track record of technical mentorship and elevating engineering teams' capabilities
• Proficiency in Go (preferred), Rust, Java, or Python with strong software engineering fundamentals
• Deep expertise in CI/CD systems, build infrastructure, and GitOps deployment patterns
• Strong communication skills with ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Ownership mentality with bias for action and iterative delivery in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
• 10+ years software engineering experience with 3+ years in Staff or Principal Engineer roles
• Proven track record architecting and operating developer-facing platforms, internal tools, or developer productivity systems at scale
• Working knowledge of AI/ML technologies and hands-on experience with LLM APIs or AI agent development
• Production experience with cloud-native infrastructure including Kubernetes, observability systems (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki), and deployment tooling
• Experience designing self-service platforms, developer portals, or golden path tooling that enable other teams to move faster
• Comfortable with autonomous work in distributed, remote-first teams across multiple time zones
• Exceptional product and platform mindset considering developer experience, business outcomes, and technical/security trade-offs
• Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar AI agent integration standards
• Background in DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering domains
• Contributions to open source developer tooling, platform engineering, or observability projects
• Experience productizing internal platforms into commercial offerings
• Deep knowledge of security, compliance, and operational best practices for production systems
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code frameworks (Terraform, Pulumi) and multi-cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Track record driving org-wide adoption of developer tooling and engineering standards