Senior Principal Software Architect – Networking & Scale

Docker; United States; Remote; USD 219,000 - 352,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote‑first by design

Flexibility in schedule

Generous PTO and Whaleness days

Home office support

Technology stipend (US$100 net/mo)

Learning & development stipend

Parental leave (16 weeks)

Equity for full-time employees

Comprehensive benefits

Docker swag

Job summary

Docker is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to shape the technical landscape, lead architecture decisions, and guide a globally distributed team. You will drive performance, reliability, and security across the platform while mentoring engineers and advancing new technologies.

The role emphasizes collaboration with product, design, and security teams to achieve scalable, compliant, and innovative solutions in a remote-first environment.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience across multiple domains.
• Experience designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems.
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages and cloud platforms; modern development frameworks.
• Demonstrated leadership, guiding diverse engineering teams and driving outcomes.
• Architectural vision with ability to align roadmaps with business goals.
• Strong problem-solving and system-diagnostic skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to influence stakeholders.
• Security-conscious with knowledge of data protection and compliance.
• Continuous improvement mindset and capability to optimize toolchains and workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the overarching technical vision for scalability, performance, and security.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the engineering organization, setting best practices.
• Lead prototyping and research into emerging technologies to transform platform capabilities.
• Ensure the platform is designed for high performance and can scale with user growth.
• Design fault-tolerant, highly available systems and manage capacity planning.
• Advocate for IaC, CI/CD pipelines, and automation best practices.
• Collaborate with security to ensure compliance and protect data.
• Work with product managers and designers to align roadmaps with business objectives.
• Tackle complex architectural issues and provide clear, innovative solutions.
• Uphold coding standards and promote thorough testing and documentation.

Skills

Software engineering

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

Architectural design

Problem solving

Communication

Security mindset

Continuous improvement

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Docker is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to shape the technical landscape, lead architecture decisions, and guide a globally distributed team. You will drive performance, reliability, and security across the platform while mentoring engineers and advancing new technologies.

The role emphasizes collaboration with product, design, and security teams to achieve scalable, compliant, and innovative solutions in a remote-first environment.