Principal Sales Engineer, US Public Sector (East Coast Preferred)

Docker

2d•$162,750 - $232,500•Remote

About The Position

Docker is seeking a Principal Sales Engineer to lead the technical aspects of conversations within the US Public Sector, specifically focusing on the Department of War and Federal Civilian agencies. This role involves acting as the technical representative for Docker, engaging with agency leaders, program offices, and platform teams. The Sales Engineer will partner with Federal Account Executives to influence requirements early in the acquisition cycle and win technical evaluations. The position requires a deep understanding of technical selling, AI governance, secure software supply chains, federal compliance, and competitive strategies. The role reports to the Director of Solutions Engineering and combines technical expertise with an understanding of government missions and competitive selling.

Requirements

8+ years in technical pre-sales as a Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Solutions Architect, selling infrastructure software, developer tools, or security products into complex enterprise or government accounts.
3+ years selling into US Federal, covering DoW, Federal Civilian, or both, with a demonstrable record of technical wins inside federal acquisition cycles.
Working knowledge of federal security and accreditation frameworks: FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, DISA STIGs, DoW Impact Levels, and the ATO process.
Strong experience running competitive PoCs and PoVs with clearly defined success and exit criteria.
Solid understanding of containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Linux, and modern application architectures, plus the major cloud platforms including their government regions.
Ability to engage credibly with both senior government stakeholders and the engineers who will use the product.
Excellent communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills, including public speaking to technical government audiences.
US citizenship.
Willingness to travel to agency sites, industry days, and partner events, up to 25%.

Nice To Haves

An active US security clearance. TS/SCI preferred.
Experience with Docker specifically, or adjacent container and supply chain security ecosystems.
Experience with software supply chain security, SBOM tooling, artifact signing and attestation, or hardened image programs.
Experience with AI governance, secure AI or agentic development workflows, or MLOps in a regulated setting.
Experience selling through or alongside federal system integrators, resellers, and contract vehicles.
Prior military, civil service, or government contractor experience.
Experience supporting air-gapped or classified deployments.
Based in the Washington DC metro area.

Responsibilities

Lead deep technical discovery across program offices, platform and DevSecOps teams, security organizations, and AI/ML groups to understand AI governance, responsible AI requirements, agency guidance, NIST AI Risk Management Framework alignment, software supply chain risk, secure software development expectations, accreditation and authorization constraints (ATO timelines, continuous authorization), and air-gapped, classified, and disconnected environment requirements.
Shape technical requirements early in the acquisition cycle to ensure agency evaluation criteria reflect Docker's value in AI governance, container and artifact security, and software supply chain integrity.
Design, position, and execute structured Proofs of Concept (PoCs) and Proofs of Value (PoVs) focused on policy enforcement, policy-as-code, image and artifact integrity, provenance, attestation, SBOM generation, hardened and minimal base images (FIPS, STIG-aligned), AI workload governance controls, sandboxed agentic development, and secure build pipelines in constrained/disconnected networks.
Define clear success criteria, evaluation frameworks, and executive-ready value summaries to support funding conversations.
Influence decision-making through demos, workshops, architecture reviews, technical exchange meetings, and executive briefings.
Translate complex AI security and governance capabilities into mission outcomes for CIOs, CISOs, Chief Data and AI Officers, and program leadership.
Establish credibility as a trusted advisor on responsible AI development practices in government, secure AI model and agent lifecycle management, software supply chain integrity and provenance, container and artifact security in accredited environments, and DevSecOps practices in federal platform organizations.
Guide agency teams in implementing governance controls across AI-enabled SDLC workflows, including identity and access governance for AI workloads and policy-as-code enforcement.
Represent Docker publicly in the federal community through industry days, agency technical exchange meetings, conference sessions, webinars, and written content (reference architectures, whitepapers).
Serve as the team's subject matter expert on how Docker's products fit within federal security and accreditation frameworks and on evidence required by agency assessors.
Position and explain compliance artifacts from Docker Hardened Images (FIPS image variants, STIG scan results, signed attestations) and help customers understand their implications for their authorization packages.
Work fluently with federal frameworks and constraints including FedRAMP, NIST 800-53/800-171, NIST Secure Software Development Framework, DISA STIGs/SRGs, DoW Impact Levels, and continuous ATO models.
Support responses to RFIs, RFPs, security questionnaires, and technical evaluation criteria in partnership with Sales, Legal, Product, and Security.
Advise on deployment patterns for on-premises, air-gapped, and government cloud environments, and collaborate with partners and system integrators.
Build, own, and expand relationships with technical champions within agencies and their supporting integrators.
Leverage champion relationships to influence broader buying groups, shape requirements, and uncover expansion opportunities.
Maintain engagement post-award to ensure outcomes are realized and to earn renewals and expansions.
Advocate for federal customer needs with Product and Engineering, providing actionable feedback.
Coordinate with Post Sales and Support to ensure customer lifecycle continuity, especially in restricted access environments.
Develop reusable technical assets (workshops, demos, reference architectures, compliance briefings, enablement content) for public sector use and to scale across the Solutions Engineering team.
Actively support competitive motions, identifying differentiation and influencing evaluation criteria.
Partner with Account Executives, channel partners, and system integrators to develop technical win strategies for strategic federal programs.
Support the technical aspects of contract vehicle and partner-led sales motions.