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.
THE ROLE, IN A NUTSHELL:
We’re looking for a highly motivated strategic partner/business development professional (VARs) who has strong market knowledge, a cloud and security network, and enjoys building relationships with key decision makers to evangelize building secure and reliable software. Our sales team walks a mile in their customers shoes and wants our customers and prospects to see the immense value and expertise Chainguard's solutions offer.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
- Own and deliver partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline and revenue outcomes for the Commercial segment, across a broad portfolio of VARs and resellers, with clear accountability for contribution to Commercial bookings
- Serve as the dedicated partner lead for the Commercial sales team, aligning partner strategy, targets, and priorities with the Commercial sales leader
- Drive consistent pipeline creation through joint prospecting, partner-led opportunity identification, and co-selling motions with Commercial AEs
- Improve partner attach rates by enabling partners to position Chainguard as a core component of their security, cloud-native, and modernization offerings for mid-market and commercial customers
- Accelerate deal velocity and win rates in a high-velocity sales cycle by making sure partners are enabled, engaged early, and aligned to common customer use cases
- Identify, recruit, and activate partners at scale, and quickly prioritize the ones showing real sales focus, technical enablement, and go-to-market commitment
- Build scalable, one-to-many programs, including enablement sessions, sales kits, deal registration motions, and partner campaigns, that keep a broad partner base productive without one-off support
- Execute lightweight joint business plans with top partners, including pipeline targets, enablement milestones, and marketing initiatives, and track progress through quarterly business reviews
- Maintain strong forecast accuracy and pipeline hygiene by managing partner opportunities in SFDC and related tools, ensuring visibility into sourced, influenced, and co-sell deals
- Partner cross-functionally with Commercial sales, solution engineering, marketing, and partner operations to remove friction, standardize what works, and scale partner success
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
- 3+ years of channel, partner, or software sales experience
- Experience working with and through VARs or resellers, ideally selling into mid-market or commercial customers
- Successful sales background, with a track record of carrying and hitting quota
- Startup or early-stage program experience strongly preferred
- Builder mindset: an entrepreneurial self-starter who can structure and break down ambiguous problems into executable steps
- Scales through programs and process, not hours, and is comfortable managing a broad partner portfolio
- Strong verbal and written communication, and comfortable presenting to partner sales and technical teams
- Ability to build rapport with partners, sellers, and cross-functional teams
- Strong technical aptitude, comfortable discussing containers, CI/CD, and software supply chain security
- Data and metric-driven, with strong organization and pipeline discipline
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
- 3+ years of channel, partner, or software sales experience
- Experience working with and through VARs or resellers
- Experience selling to mid-market or commercial customers
- Successful sales background with a track record of carrying and hitting quota
- Startup or early-stage program experience
- Entrepreneurial, self-starting builder mindset
- Ability to structure ambiguous problems into executable steps
- Ability to scale through programs and processes while managing a broad partner portfolio
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Comfort presenting to partner sales and technical teams
- Ability to build rapport with partners, sellers, and cross-functional teams
- Strong technical aptitude and comfort discussing containers, CI/CD, and software supply chain security
- Data- and metric-driven approach with strong organization and pipeline discipline
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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