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.
At Chainguard we're focused on securing the software supply chain, and we're building the next generation of products at the intersection of security and AI. We're looking for an engineering manager to lead a fast-moving team shipping tools that developers will actually use — the Guardener, hardened GitHub Actions, Chainguard Agent Skills, and new products built on our microVM sandbox platform.
You'll own these products end-to-end: hire and grow the team, set the roadmap with Product, and stay hands-on enough to dig into the code. This is a high-ownership role for someone who moves fast, takes initiative, and measures success by what ships and who uses it.
What you'll do:- Own a portfolio of products end-to-end — the Guardener, hardened GitHub Actions, Chainguard Agent Skills, and emerging microVM-based products — from roadmap through implementation, rollout, and iteration.
- Hire, lead, and grow a small team of strong engineers. Remove blockers and create the conditions for them to do their best work.
- Stay technically hands-on: review designs and PRs, prototype when it unblocks the team, and unblock the team
- Partner closely with Product on a roadmap with real deadlines — help the team prioritize tradeoffs and ship iteratively rather than waiting for perfect.
- Navigate ambiguous problems and find a clear path forward. You take initiative rather than waiting for complete specs.
- Own the quality and reliability of what you ship, and stay close to customers to turn their feedback directly into the roadmap.
- 2+ years experience managing engineers with a genuine, sustained passion for leading and growing a team.
- A track record of shipping products or major features and owning the results.
- Strong technical background — you can still read code, review designs, and reason about architecture and tradeoffs. Proficiency with Go or strong readiness to ramp quickly.
- Experience building CI/CD systems, developer tooling, or product-facing platforms; familiarity with containers, Kubernetes, and cloud infrastructure.
- Experience with AI tooling and genuine enthusiasm for applying it to complex customer problems
- Comfort with autonomy and ambiguity, a bias for action, and a habit of shipping iteratively.
- Strong communication skills and a collaborative spirit working closely with Product and customers.
Explore Our Work
Dive into the practical side of what we do at Chainguard. These resources provide a hands-on look at our processes and offer an opportunity for in-depth understanding of our product offerings and the technology behind them.
- Chainguard Academy
- https://www.chainguard.dev
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
- 2+ years of experience managing engineers and a sustained passion for leading and growing teams
- Track record of shipping products or major features and owning their results
- Strong technical background, including the ability to read code, review designs, and reason about architecture and tradeoffs
- Proficiency with Go or strong readiness to ramp up quickly
- Experience building CI/CD systems, developer tooling, or product-facing platforms
- Familiarity with containers, Kubernetes, and cloud infrastructure
- Experience with AI tooling and enthusiasm for applying it to complex customer problems
- Comfort with autonomy and ambiguity, bias for action, and iterative shipping
- Strong communication skills and collaborative work with Product and customers
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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Affordable Benefits — Health insurance is fully employer-paid for employees and dependents, materially reducing out-of-pocket costs. Public benefits materials consistently highlight this as a cornerstone of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave for all parents and meaningful family-planning support (including adoption, IVF, egg freezing, and surrogacy) are emphasized across company materials. These elements broaden support for different family paths and stages.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options are granted at hire and promotion with a long post-termination exercise window, improving flexibility and potential value capture. This structure is presented as notably employee-friendly for a startup.
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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