Principal Software Engineer, Networking (Seattle or SF Bay Area)

Docker is a globally distributed, remote-first company building developer tools and infrastructure, including Docker Desktop, Docker Hub, and Docker Scout. The Principal Software Engineer will set the technical direction for the networking stack supporting Docker's Sandboxes platform, design and operate scalable networking infrastructure, and provide technical leadership to a small engineering team.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and operate core networking services that power Docker's Sandboxes platform across local laptops and public cloud environments
• Build scalable networking infrastructure for microVM orchestration, workload scheduling, and lifecycle management
• Develop high-performance networking data- and control-plane components for multi-tenant agentic workloads
• Ensure network reliability, observability, and performance across Docker's Sandbox infrastructure
• Collaborate with product, platform, and security teams to deliver customer-focused capabilities
• Participate in architectural discussions, code reviews, and design documents
• Contribute to automation and CI/CD improvements across the deployment pipeline
• Debug and resolve production issues across distributed systems in local and public-cloud environments
• Take part in on-call rotation for your team; respond to incidents and drive continuous improvement of system reliability and availability

Requirements:

• 10+ years of experience building and leading large-scale cloud or distributed systems, with a focus on networking foundations
• Track record of driving technical consensus and delivering high-quality infrastructure software at scale, on tight timelines
• Experience with microservices architecture, container networking, service mesh, policy enforcement, and container orchestration
• Experience with kernel and user-space networking technologies, including Linux networking, OVS/OVN, DPDK, and eBPF
• Experience designing and operating highly available, secure, and observable networking infrastructure
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI) and related scalability patterns
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, and infrastructure-as-code tooling
• Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills in distributed environments
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across remote, cross-functional teams
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience