Senior Software Engineer (Guarded Containers)

In a word, BUILD.

If you're the kind of engineer who thrives on clean systems, tight loops, and big technical challenges, this one’s for you. You’ll be joining the Guarded Containers team—the builders and stewards of Chainguard Images, our flagship product. We’re talking about the base layer of trust for supply chain security—and you’ll be shaping the foundation.

We're growing fast and scaling even faster. That means we need folks who can not only write great code but also think 10x:

• How do we evolve our image tooling infrastructure as demand surges?

• What new features do our customers need before they know it?

• How do we enforce quality with automation instead of overhead?

If you’re excited about working on one of the most technically sophisticated products in the secure software supply chain—and doing it with a team that’s collaborative, opinionated, and execution-focused—you’ll love it here.

What You’ll Do:

🛠 Build the Future of Chainguard Images
Design and implement new features that make our container images even more secure, performant, and scalable.

🧰 Level Up Our Tooling and Infra
Develop robust internal systems that scale with us—everything from build pipelines to container registries to custom tooling that only we could dream up.

📏 Codify and Enforce Product Quality
Define standards, write tests, and ship tooling that helps us stay high-quality and high-velocity at the same time.

🤝 Collaborate Across Boundaries
Work closely with engineering, product, customers, and leadership to help define roadmap and shape the future of the product.

What We’re Looking For:

• ✅ 5+ years of real-world software engineering experience

• ✅ Deep understanding of data structures, algorithms, compilers, toolchains, and how the pieces fit together

• ✅ Fluency in containers, Docker, Kubernetes, and their ecosystems

• ✅ Experience with Terraform or other IaC tools, and a knack for modular, reusable infra

• ✅ Strong automation chops—Python, Go, Bash, or similar

• ✅ Excellent communication, autonomy, and the instincts to know when to ask for help

Bonus Points For:

• 💡 Contributor to open-source projects (especially in the container or infra space)

• 🔥 A track record of bringing order to chaos in fast-moving environments

• 🧪 Curiosity, initiative, and the courage to try weird things that just might work

Dive Deeper

Curious what we’re actually working on? Take a look at Chainguard Academy and see what we mean by "secure by default."

If you’re ready to build systems that secure the global software supply chain—and have fun doing it—let’s talk.

Base Salary Range
$157,000—$184,000 USD

About Us

Chainguard is the secure foundation for software development and deployment. By providing guarded open source software, built from source and updated continuously, Chainguard helps organizations eliminate threats in their software supply chains.

Founded by the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, Chainguard has built the largest library of open source software that is secure by default.

Chainguard’s mission is to be the safe source for open source.

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.

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