Chainguard is the trusted source for open source. By delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers and AI agents rely on, Chainguard helps organizations build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk.
Our customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake.
Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.
You will manage the AMER Technical Support Engineering team, part of a broader global follow-the-sun support organization under the Engineering organization. Your primary accountability is the quality and reliability of the escalation path: from customer-reported issue to engineering resolution. You own the operational layer between L2 and L3, which means you think about ticket routing, escalation criteria, handoff quality, and engineering capacity as an interconnected system, not as separate concerns.
This role is for an engineering-minded Support Manager with deep technical knowledge and strong customer relationship skills -- someone who can drive rigorous engineering outcomes while delivering an exceptional customer experience.
What you'll do: Escalation Operations- Own the L2/L3 escalation boundary: define routing criteria, review escalation quality, and drive down unnecessary L3 load without increasing customer time-to-resolution
- Maintain and improve escalation intake workflows including triage standards, ticket hygiene, and handoff artifacts for engineering partners
- Track escalation health metrics and report on trends to engineering leadership; identify capacity risks in eng teams before they become bottlenecks
- Run escalation retrospectives to close the loop on resolution patterns and feed signal back into product and documentation
- Manage, coach, support and develop the AMER Technical Support Engineering team, with direct attention to technical depth and debugging rigor
- Operate career leveling frameworks for IC growth (L1 through L6); hold bar on promotions and ensure growth plans are actionable
- Coordinate AMER handoffs with APAC and EMEA peer managers to maintain follow-the-sun coverage quality: clear ownership at every handoff, with uninterrupted SLA performance
- Identify and close skill gaps proactively, particularly in Linux fundamentals, container security, and Kubernetes ecosystems
- Own the support tooling stack including ticketing systems, AI-assisted triage, and deflection tooling
- Partner with engineering to build and maintain LLM-assisted workflows for escalation intake, ticket quality review, and knowledge retrieval
- Drive adoption of AI tooling across the team; know where automation adds leverage and where it introduces risk
- Use support data to surface product quality signals and operational trends to engineering and product leadership
- Serve as the primary interface between Technical Support Engineering and product engineering teams for escalated issues
- Maintain a functional relationship with Customer Success and GTM without allowing those teams to define support quality standards or escalation criteria
- Contribute to product feedback loops through reproducible, well-scoped bug reports and actionable pattern analysis
- 4+ years managing technical support engineers or software engineers in a production-facing environment
- Demonstrated ability to design and operate an escalation process: not just follow one
- Technical credibility in the Linux ecosystem; comfortable reading logs, understanding container runtimes, and engaging with engineering teams as an active peer
- Strong written communication; capable of writing clear escalation summaries, retrospective reports, and leadership-facing metrics briefs
- Track record of developing engineers through real feedback, structured growth plans, and calibrated performance conversations
- Comfort operating in a globally distributed support org with peer managers in other regions; strong handoff discipline
- Experience with container security, DevSecOps tooling, Kubernetes, or open source software ecosystems
- Familiarity with Zendesk or similar ticketing platforms at an operational level (workflows, configuration, reporting)
- Exposure to AI-assisted support tooling, LLM-based triage, or knowledge retrieval systems
Your success will be evaluated on outcomes that require both technical judgment and operational discipline:
- L3 escalation score (quality and completeness of escalations reaching engineering)
- Mean time to resolution on P0 and P1 tickets
- L2 deflection rate with explicit accounting for customer time-to-resolution, not raw deflection volume
- Engineer retention and growth within your team
- Coverage model reliability: no dropped handoffs, no SLA misses due to scheduling gaps
We live and breathe our company values:
- We are customer obsessed — We focus on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better.
- We have a bias for intentional action — We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast.
- We don't take ourselves too seriously (but we do serious work) — We are solving an important problem which takes focus, but we also like to enjoy the journey.
- We trust each other and assume good intentions — We're transparent with decisions to empower team members to make well informed decisions.
A few of the benefits we offer:
- Flexible & Remote-First Culture: Work remotely with team meetup opportunities, bi-annual destination summits, and a monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs.
- Our Approach to Equity: Receive stock options upon hire and promotion. Plus, you can participate in secondary offerings and have 10 years to exercise your options (yes, you read that correctly: 10 years!).
- 100% Covered Health Insurance: We cover 100% of your health, vision and dental insurance premiums for you and your dependents. Nothing comes out of your paycheck.
- ∞ Flexible Time Off: Take the time you need – to do our best work, we need to recharge and reset.
- 18 Weeks Paid Parental Leave: We offer 18 weeks for birthing parents and 12 weeks for non-birthing parents, with the option to use it all at once or throughout your child's first year.
If your experience is close but doesn't fulfill all requirements, please apply. We're building the best team in technology and are focused on hiring "Chainguardians" with unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.
Chainguard is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Chainguard will process your personal data in accordance with Chainguard's Global Candidate Privacy Notice.
©2026 Chainguard. All Rights Reserved.
Skills Required
- 4+ years managing technical support engineers or software engineers in a production-facing environment
- Demonstrated ability to design and operate an escalation process (L2/L3 boundaries, routing, escalation criteria)
- Technical credibility in the Linux ecosystem; comfortable reading logs, understanding container runtimes, and engaging with engineering teams
- Strong written communication; able to write clear escalation summaries, retrospective reports, and leadership-facing metrics briefs
- Track record of developing engineers with structured growth plans, feedback, and calibrated performance conversations
- Comfort operating in a globally distributed support organization with disciplined handoffs and follow-the-sun coverage
- Proactively identify and close skill gaps, particularly in Linux fundamentals, container security, and Kubernetes ecosystems
- Experience with container security, DevSecOps tooling, Kubernetes, or open source software ecosystems
- Familiarity with Zendesk or similar ticketing platforms (workflows, configuration, reporting)
- Exposure to AI-assisted support tooling, LLM-based triage, or knowledge retrieval systems
Chainguard Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Chainguard and has not been reviewed or approved by Chainguard.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as fully paid for employees and dependents, including medical, dental, and vision. This reduces out-of-pocket costs and materially elevates total compensation.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave policies and family-planning support (adoption, IVF, egg freezing, surrogacy) are presented as generous and flexible. This breadth supports different family needs and enhances perceived rewards beyond base pay.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options are granted at hire and promotion with a long exercise window, improving flexibility and usability. This design can make equity more accessible and valuable over time.
Chainguard Insights
What We Do
Chainguard is the secure foundation for building with open source software. The company's portfolio of secure, minimal container images helps organizations embrace a new culture of software development where starting left with security, not shifting left, is the reality. Chainguard was founded by the industry's leading experts on software supply chain security, open source, software, and cloud-native development. We aren't a traditional security vendor. It's container images provide secure-by-default infrastructure that introduces zero friction to developer workflows. That's why developers love and CISOS trust Chainguard. Its customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and leading technology and security companies, including Anduril, Canva, Domino Data Lab, Checkmarx, HPE, GitLab, Snowflake, and Wiz. Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Spark Capital.
Why Work With Us
Security is our mission, but having fun is our mantra. Since our founding, we've increased +1M memes, sung 900+ hours of Kubernetes-themed karaoke, and created 774+ whacky Slack emojis. Beyond this, Chainguard's innovation and leadership in open source and software supply chain security has been recognized by industry leaders.
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