Senior Software Engineer, Ai Gateway

Overview
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 AI Gateway is our answer to the complexity of taking AI agents from prototype to production. It's a powerful, intelligent, and secure control point that eliminates the toil of model orchestration, tool management, observability, and governance—so developers can focus on building incredible AI agents, not gluing together infrastructure.
The Gateway sits at the center of modern AI applications, offering:
A model and tool routing layer with built-in security and cost optimization
A familiar OpenAI-compatible interface and MCP server
Unified observability and policy enforcement
Auto-RAG, tool injection, session summarization, and more
We're just getting started—and we need exceptional engineers to help us build the backbone of the future of agent-based development.
Responsibilities
Design and implement core systems powering the AI Gateway, including the model router, MCP gateway, and control plane
Build infrastructure that supports dynamic model selection, auto-failover, cost-based routing, and policy enforcement
Own critical capabilities such as secure credential storage, session summarization, caching, and rate limiting
Develop APIs for developers building with OpenAI-compatible interfaces and the Model Context Protocol
Build the underlying infrastructure to support evaluation, telemetry, replay, and backtesting for agents and LLM workflows
Lead architectural decisions and mentor engineers as the team scales
Collaborate with product and design to create delightful experiences in our control plane UI
Contribute to roadmap planning, technical strategy, and cross-functional alignment
Key Problems You'll Help Solve
Build a unified abstraction layer across diverse model and tool providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock)
Implement secure and scalable identity and credential vaulting for tool and model access
Create infrastructure to support real-time and historical analytics of AI agent behavior
Ensure policy enforcement and logging works end-to-end—from prompt to tool to response
Develop seamless developer experiences through intuitive APIs and first-class observability
Qualifications
6+ years of backend engineering experience with production-grade systems
Deep knowledge of distributed and highly scalable systems, cloud-native infrastructure, and API design
Experience building secure, high-throughput services (e.g., gateways, proxies, load balancers, policy engines)
Fluency in Go, and/or Rust (both preferred)
Familiarity with AI/ML platforms or model serving infrastructure
A strong product mindset—you're excited about building developer-facing tools
Ownership mentality with a bias for shipping, learning, and iterating
Bonus Qualifications
Prior experience with OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar LLM APIs
Familiarity with RAG architectures, vector databases, or agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, AutoGPT, CrewAI)
Experience with policy engines (e.g., OPA), observability frameworks (e.g., OpenTelemetry), or API gateways
Understanding of OAuth2.1, secret management, and cloud IAM systems
Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and microservices architecture
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Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here.
Perks
Freedom & flexibility; fit your work around your life
Designated quarterly Whaleness Days
Home office setup; we want you comfortable while you work
16 weeks of paid Parental leave
Technology stipend equivalent to $100 net/month
PTO plan that encourages you to take time to do the things you enjoy
Quarterly, company-wide hackathons
Training stipend for conferences, courses and classes
Equity; we are a growing start-up and want all employees to have a share in the success of the company
Docker Swag
Medical benefits, retirement and holidays vary by country
Docker embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our company will be.
Due to the remote nature of this role, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship.
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