Senior Principal Engineer, Docker and Ecosystem

Docker•Seattle, WA

5d•$219,000 - $352,000•Remote

About The Position

Docker is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer to serve as the technical visionary and architect for how software gets built, verified, and trusted. This role sits in Docker and Ecosystems, the group that owns Docker’s most well known products and our emerging content and SDLC business. You will own the technical strategy for secure software delivery across all of it, defining what verifiable, tamper-resistant software delivery looks like at Docker's scale, then driving the architecture that makes it real for every developer and every enterprise customer using our products. You will set multi-year technical direction, make architectural decisions that shape Docker's product portfolio, and work directly with the SVP of Engineering and executive team on strategy. You will not manage people. You will change what the industry considers table stakes.

Requirements

12+ years of software engineering experience specializing in build security, software supply chain security, or SDLC tooling.
Deep understanding of build process threat models across dependencies, environments, artifacts, and pipelines, along with effective mitigations.
Architectural experience in artifact signing, attestations, SBOMs, dependency security, CI/CD security, base image trust, or vulnerability intelligence.
Practical knowledge of supply chain security frameworks and standards.
Expertise in API design, service architecture, and scalable system integration.
Proven record delivering large-scale distributed systems for millions of users and enterprise customers.
Experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and modern infrastructure.
Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
Proven track record creating strategic technical plans that enable revenue, expansion, or enterprise deals.
Experience converting business strategy into technical architectures and roadmaps.
Understanding of SaaS business models, enterprise sales, and how security impacts commercial outcomes.
Experience leading build-vs-buy decisions for core platform components.
Ability to lead large, cross-company technical initiatives across multiple engineering teams.
Experience partnering with VPs and executives to define and execute technical strategy.
Proven ability to influence technical direction and build consensus without direct authority.
Strong communication skills for presenting to executives and driving organization-wide alignment.
Experience mentoring senior engineers and developing technical leaders.
Experience building products that serve enterprise customers with complex security and compliance requirements.
Knowledge of enterprise security requirements and compliance frameworks such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and their architectural implications.
Understanding of how enterprise security teams evaluate, procure, and operate tooling.

Nice To Haves

Scale experience at a security, developer tools, or infrastructure software company.
Experience with containers (Docker, Kubernetes) or developer platforms.
Experience with complex enterprise billing, contracts, usage pricing, and revenue recognition.
Proven ability to migrate legacy systems without disrupting business operations.
Contributions to open-source security tools or supply chain security standards.
Recognized technical leader via speaking, publishing, or open-source work.
Advanced degree in CS, Engineering, or a related field.

Responsibilities

Lead multi-year technical vision for build security and supply chain across Docker Desktop, Hub, Hardened Images, Verified Publishing, and monetization platforms.
Define and sequence "trusted by default" architecture for 20M developers.
Partner with the SVP of Engineering to convert commercial strategy into multi-year technical roadmaps.
Establish company-wide architectural principles and security standards.
Identify high-leverage platform investments that enhance security across all Docker products.
Proactively position architecture ahead of evolving supply chain threats and regulatory demands.
Architect systems to detect and prevent build-process threats like compromised dependencies, malicious steps, tampered artifacts, and untrusted images.
Design provenance and attestation infrastructure ensuring Docker artifacts carry verifiable build history.
Define artifact signing, verification, and policy enforcement across local workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
Architect SBOM generation, dependency analysis, and vulnerability intelligence for complete software visibility.
Align with and help shape emerging supply chain security standards.
Ensure security controls remain fast and unobtrusive so developers keep them enabled.
Architect how Docker's security capabilities integrate across the full software development lifecycle, from local development through CI/CD to production deployment.
Design the interfaces and contracts that let Docker's tooling embed into the pipelines, registries, and platforms customers already run, rather than asking them to rebuild around us.
Define the developer experience for security tooling, where the secure path is the fast path and the default path.
Architect policy and enforcement models that satisfy enterprise security and compliance requirements without fragmenting the developer workflow.
Drive convergence of security capabilities across Docker products, replacing product-specific implementations with shared platform primitives.
Work with leaders across engineering to drive strategy and execution.
Mentor and develop Staff and Principal engineers, raising the technical bar across the organization.
Represent Docker's security architecture externally through blog posts, conference talks, standards bodies, and technical community engagement.
Participate in executive-level discussions, providing architectural perspective on business decisions.
Take part in on-call rotation for your team, respond to incidents, debug production issues, and drive continuous improvement of system reliability.

Benefits

Generous PTO
designated quarterly Whaleness Days
designated end-of-year Whaleness break
Home office support
Technology stipend – Equivalent to US$100 net per month
Learning & development – Annual stipend for conferences, courses, certifications, and continued learning.
Parental leave – 16 weeks of paid parental leave after six months of employment.
Equity for all full-time employees
Comprehensive benefits – Medical, retirement, and paid holidays vary by country.
Docker swag