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Salary: USD 198,000 - 319,000 / annual
Docker is seeking a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer to embed directly with strategic customers and solve complex technical problems at the intersection of containerization and AI agents. You will work side-by-side with customer engineering teams to understand their goals, constraints, and technical landscape, then design, build, and ship production solutions.
Key responsibilities include:
**Build in Production with Customers**
Embed with customer engineering teams to design and deliver working technical artifacts: custom MCP servers integrated with Docker Sandbox environments for coding agents, Docker Compose definitions for multi-agent harnesses, hardened image standardization, and new tools that unblock progress. Own the full technical journey from discovery and architecture through prototyping, implementation, and production rollout. Integrate Docker's AI platform with customer stacks including identity providers (OIDC/SAML/SSO), secrets management, private registries, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and observability tooling.
**Make AI Adoption Safe and Governable**
Translate customer security, compliance, and platform requirements into concrete plans. Help customers define controls to adopt agentic AI safely without compromising security, compliance, or data sovereignty. Establish quality and performance standards and partner with customer security teams through architecture review and threat modeling.
**Partner with Solutions Architecture and the Field**
Work closely with Solutions Architects to enable off-the-shelf solutions when possible and provide technical leadership for bespoke solutions. Feed implementation learnings back into reference architectures and success patterns. Support the field during proofs of concept and expansion conversations.
**Close the Loop with Product and Engineering**
Work with Product and Engineering teams to fold FDE innovations and design patterns into products and services. Deliver data-driven feedback on what works, what doesn't, and what blocks customer adoption. Be the voice of the customer influencing the roadmap.
**Shape the Practice**
Define the FDE engagement model, delivery standards, and quality bar. Mentor and lead other Forward Deployed Engineers and participate in hiring. Act as senior technical escalation for the hardest problems. Maintain deep knowledge of the agentic AI stack: LLMs, APIs, MCP, coding agents, evaluation approaches, and deployment patterns. May participate in on-call rotation for support outside standard business hours.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years in customer-facing technical roles (Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Professional Services Engineer, or Software Engineer with consulting/founder experience)
- Technical leadership across multiple engagements, teams, or domains with proven ability to set delivery standards, define repeatable patterns, and influence product direction
- Expert production coding skills in Go, Python, or TypeScript with track record of shipping and operating software others depend on
- Deep, hands-on Docker expertise: Dockerfiles, multi-stage builds, Docker Compose, image/registry operations, container networking, storage, and security fundamentals
- Hands-on experience building with LLMs and agents in production: tool use, function calling, Model Context Protocol (MCP server and client implementation), prompt engineering, and agent behavior evaluation
- Working knowledge of software supply chain security: SBOMs, image signing/attestation, vulnerability management, hardened base images, secure CI/CD
- Experience integrating with enterprise systems: identity providers (Okta, Entra ID, LDAP/Active Directory), federated identity protocols (OIDC, SAML), secrets managers, Kubernetes, and major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Ability to scope and deliver complex work in ambiguous, fast-moving customer environments with sound trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality
- Excellent communication skills with engineers, security/platform teams, and executives; collaborative, low-ego approach; ability to lead through influence
- Proven track record of technical mentorship and raising the bar for engineers
- High agency and comfort operating autonomously in distributed, remote-first teams
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Willingness to travel to customer sites (up to 50%) to build in person
**Bonus qualifications:**
- Experience with Docker Hardened Images, Docker Scout, MCP Gateway, MCP Toolkit, Docker Sandboxes, or Docker Model Runner
- Experience deploying and operating coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, or similar) in team/enterprise settings
- Experience in air-gapped, regulated, or compliance-driven environments (financial services, healthcare, government)
- Open source contributions in container, Kubernetes, or MCP ecosystems
- Prior experience founding or scaling a Forward Deployed Engineering or Professional Services practice
