Principal Software Engineer, AI Developer Tools

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!

Docker seeks a Principal Engineer to define the technical vision and architecture for our new AI Developer Tools team. This is a rare opportunity to establish the technical foundation for how AI will transform developer productivity—both internally at Docker and for our customers worldwide. You'll work at the intersection of AI, developer experience, and platform engineering, architecting cutting‑edge AI‑powered developer tools and building the platform that enables teams across Docker to rapidly prototype, deploy, and scale their own AI developer tools.

As Principal Engineer, you’ll own the technical strategy for two critical areas:

• AI‑Powered Developer Tools Architecture: Define the technical architecture for innovative AI agents and tools that accelerate developer productivity, provide observability insights, and automate operational reviews. Lead the design and implementation of tools that make it easier for teams to adopt an AI‑native mindset and accelerate adoption of AI developer tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Warp, or other AI tools as they gain traction within Docker teams.
  
  You’ll architect tools such as AI‑powered code review and refactoring assistants, automated test generators and local environment setup tools, deployment pipeline diagnostic agents, and agents that simplify on‑call tasks when handling incidents.
• Self‑Service AI Developer Tools Platform: Design and build the foundational platform infrastructure that empowers product and platform teams across Docker to unblock themselves by rapidly prototyping, building, and deploying their own AI developer tools. Establish technical standards, architectural patterns, and best practices that enable teams to experiment with AI solutions for their unique pain points, iterate quickly on tool ideas, and graduate successful prototypes into production‑ready services.

As internal AI developer tools demonstrate value and gain traction, you’ll partner with product and engineering leadership to evaluate productization opportunities—defining the technical architecture for transforming proven internal tools into new commercial offerings for Docker’s customers.

Reporting to the Director of Platform Infrastructure & AI Developer Tools, you’ll collaborate closely with engineering leadership across Docker, the AI Developer Tools Senior Manager, product engineering teams, platform teams, and ultimately customers as internal tools evolve into product offerings.

You’re a technical leader who excels at the intersection of AI, developer experience, and platform engineering. You have deep expertise in LLM integration, AI agents, and practical applications of AI in developer workflows, with a track record of shipping production AI systems  think in systems and platforms, designing architectures that enable leverage—building once and enabling dozens of teams to move faster.

You understand the nuances of developer tooling and can articulate clear opinions on what makes tools that developers love to use. You have exceptional judgment on when to build custom solutions versus integrate existing tools, and you’re comfortable navigating the rapidly evolving AI/LLM landscape. 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 around AI and developer tooling.

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define the long‑term technical vision and architecture for AI‑powered developer tools and the self‑service platform that enables teams to build their own AI agents
• Establish architectural…