Senior TPM, Forward Deployed Engineering (Remote)

Docker; United States; Remote; USD 163,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first by design

Flexibility that fits your life

Generous PTO and Whaleness days

Technology stipend

Job summary

Docker is seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager for Forward Deployed Engineering to define delivery standards, track commitments, and lead senior engineers inside key customer engagements. You will own the operating rhythm, resource planning, and cross-functional alignment to ensure timely delivery of critical programs.

The role requires executive communication skills, deep technical background in cloud platforms and containers, and the ability to influence across Product, Engineering,

Qualifications

• 10+ years of technical program management experience, including 4+ years at Staff level or above, supporting customer-facing engineering, professional services, or field engineering teams.
• Track record of delivering commitments on schedule for enterprise customers, including contractual or executive-visible deadlines.
• Experience defining standards, quality bars, and operating processes that other teams adopted.
• Experience running dependencies across many engineering teams that you do not manage, and getting reliable dates from them through influence.
• Strong technical background in cloud platforms, containers, and modern software delivery.

Responsibilities

• Define the FDE delivery standards, engagement model, and quality bar, and write them down so engagements are consistent across customers, regions, and engineers.
• Decide which metrics matter for FDE, set targets, and revise them as the team learns.
• Turn lessons from each engagement into reusable practice and product improvements.
• Give executives a clear account of what is on track and what requires decisions, aligned with customer commitments.
• Own FDE capacity management and staffing plans with FDE leadership and recruiting.
• Instrument every commitment Docker has made to FDE customers and surface risks early to act on them.
• Track commitments, map dependencies across teams, and hold teams to dates.
• Negotiate and confirm dates with teams and ensure planning processes are followed.
• Represent FDE with Product and Engineering leadership and ensure customer needs are defined using data.

Skills

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Project leadership

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Docker is seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager for Forward Deployed Engineering to define delivery standards, track commitments, and lead senior engineers inside key customer engagements. You will own the operating rhythm, resource planning, and cross-functional alignment to ensure timely delivery of critical programs.

The role requires executive communication skills, deep technical background in cloud platforms and containers, and the ability to influence across Product, Engineering,