• The Runtime team is building Docker’s runtime for AI workloads—a cross-platform foundation that delivers strong isolation and enterprise governance at every layer
• The team owns a custom VMM, a full container stack, and deep OS integration across Windows, macOS, and Linux. This technology is the core of Docker’s new sbx product, which enables AI agents and workloads to run safely and at scale
• In this role, you would manage this team, owning its technical direction and delivery and being accountable for its operational excellence
• Lead a team of 6–10 engineers building Docker’s cross-platform runtime across Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Own the technical direction and roadmap
• Partner closely with product management to align the team with business and product goals
• Ensure predictable delivery and operational excellence across the components the team ships
• Hire and retain top systems engineering talent
• Hold a high bar for engineering excellence
• Facilitate communication across teams and provide status reporting for critical projects
• First 30 days:
• Understand the group and team missions
• Meet the team along with peers across the group and the company
• Start line managing reports and building a rapport
• Gain a high-level understanding of the runtime architecture: the VMM, container stack, and how they fit together across platforms
• Participate in status reporting and reliability reviews
• First 90 Days:
• Work with the team to align on goals and measures of success
• Start career discussions with reports
• Work with the team to improve processes and remove blockers
• Contribute technical input to roadmap and architectural decisions
• Oversee the delivery of a change or feature
• Start hiring for the team (if needed)
• One Year Outlook (First Year):
• Drive the long-term technical direction of the runtime across all supported platforms
• Have had a sustained, positive impact on the growth and performance of your reports
• Shipped meaningful improvements to the cross-platform runtime that developers rely on every day

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off Policy
• 100% company paid medical premiums for employees and dependents
• “Whaleness” Days — At least 1 company wide day off per month
• Generous Maternity and Parental Leave
• Employer Paid Holidays
• Training Allowances
• Virtual and In-Person Social Events
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Docker Swag
• Retirement Plans
• Monthly Technology Stipend
• Home Office Set Up Budget
• Quarterly Hackathons
• Virtual Coffee with Co-Workers- The successful candidate is a hands-on systems engineer at heart. They have worked deep in the stack—hypervisors, container runtimes, OS internals, kernel development—and use that experience to guide their team to sound architectural decisions and a high engineering bar
• They are skilled at growing and retaining senior individual contributors, thrive in a remote-first environment, and bring the same curiosity and craft to engineering leadership that they once brought to the code itself
• They stay close to customers—not because they’re told to, but because they know that the gap between elegant internals and something people actually trust is where the real work happens
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Deep understanding of virtualization concepts: VMMs, hypervisors, and hardware-assisted virtualization
• 5+ years experience managing high-performing engineering teams
• Cross-platform systems experience across two or more of: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Experience with container runtimes (OCI, containerd, runc) or equivalent low-level infrastructure
• 5+ years of hands-on systems programming experience (hypervisors, container runtimes, OS internals, kernel development, or similar low-level infrastructure)
• Comfortable with a high degree of autonomy and the ability to work remotely across time zones- We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications