Backend Engineer, Hub ( US East Coast

At Docker, we make app development easier so developers can focus on what matters. Our remote-first team spans the globe, united by a passion for innovation and great developer experiences. With over 20 million monthly users and 20 billion image pulls, Docker is the #1 tool for building, sharing, and running apps—trusted by startups and Fortune 100s alike. We’re growing fast and just getting started.

Come join us for a whale of a ride!

We’re looking for a Staff Backend Engineer with extensive experience in distributed systems
, large-scale backend architecture, and high-volume storage systems. You will own systems end-to-end—from schema design and API architecture to deployment, observability, and operational excellence.

The work is highly dynamic, and you will operate in a fast-paced environment where we continuously evolve the platform to support enormous growth in traffic, data, and global usage. You’ll collaborate across engineering, SRE, Product, and Design while acting as a technical leader who simplifies complexity, elevates engineering quality, and improves a globally critical developer platform.

If you’re passionate about building and operating massive-scale distributed systems with huge data and throughput demands, this role is for you.

• Architect, build, and operate high-scale distributed systems powering Docker Hub’s registry platform—spanning artifact storage, metadata services, indexing workflows, and performance-critical APIs.
• Lead the design and implementation of backend services with a strong emphasis on scalability, correctness, resilience, and performance
  .
• Drive major initiatives around multi-region replication, caching strategies, request-path optimization
  , and core registry reliability.

• Design, optimize, operate the data and storage layers - for both Relational and No
  
  Sql as well as object storage and related technologies.
• Develop schemas and data models to support high-throughput, large-volume workloads.
• Own systems end-to-end—from storage-layer behavior to API design, deployment workflows, and production monitoring.

• Improve the performance and reliability of one of the world’s largest repositories of container images.
• Develop and enhance observability through metrics, traces, alerting, and dashboards.
• Lead improvements to deployment and operational tooling (e.g., Argo CD, Git Hub Actions).
• Participate in on-call rotations as part of supporting critical production services.

• Mentor engineers and lead design and architecture reviews.
• Partner with Product, Design, SRE, and Platform teams to deliver high-impact projects.
• Engage with open-source communities, cloud-native partners, and the broader ecosystem.

Required

• 12+ years backend engineering experience with deep expertise in distributed systems and large-scale backend architectures
  .
• Strong production experience with Golang
  , including designing and operating large Go-based services in cloud environments.
• Strong production experience with Kubernetes
  , including operating services at scale.
• Experience designing and running high-scale storage systems (Postgre
  
  SQL, Dynamo
  
  DB, or equivalent) in production.
• Experience building and operating cloud-based services (AWS preferred).
• Experience with event-driven or streaming systems
  , such as Kafka, SNS/SQS, or equivalent.
• Strong foundation in software engineering best practices: design documentation, testing strategies, CI/CD, code review, observability.
• Comfortable functioning autonomously in a fully distributed, remote-first team and working effectively in a fast-paced environment.

Nice to Have

• Experience with OCI registries
  , artifact stores, or large-scale content distribution systems.
• Familiarity with search/indexing systems or metadata-rich architectures.
• Contributions to cloud-native or open-source ecosystems.

• An engineer with deep experience in distributed systems and large-scale storage
• Someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and consistently optimizes for reliability, automation, and performance
  .
• A technical leader who…