Staff Software Engineer (Guarded Containers) - Chainguard

About the Role

Chainguard is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Guarded Containers team. This is a product-driven, feature-development role where you will set the technical direction for Chainguard Images, our core product. You will partner with product and engineering leadership to turn ambitious ideas into shipped, scalable features while mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar.

What You’ll Do

• Architect & Drive: Lead the development of major new features and services to make Chainguard Images more powerful and valuable.
• Strategic Partnership: Collaborate with product, design, and engineering leadership to shape the roadmap and scope high-impact initiatives.
• Technical Leadership: Make high-leverage architectural decisions, balancing customer impact, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
• Project Delivery: Lead complex, cross-cutting projects from concept to production.
• Mentorship: Act as a technical role model, mentoring engineers and elevating technical practices across the team.
• Platform Evolution: Drive improvements to the tools and services supporting our image build system.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of software development experience with deep fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, compilers, Makefiles, and toolchains.
• Strong product mindset: ability to translate ambiguous goals into concrete technical plans.
• Proven track record of leading complex, multi-engineer or cross-team initiatives.
• Deep expertise with containers, container registries, Docker, Kubernetes, and the broader ecosystem.
• Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code tools at scale.
• Strong experience writing services or tools in Go.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work autonomously.

Nice to Haves

• Author and/or contributor to open-source projects.

Benefits

• Flexible & Remote-First: Monthly stipend for coworking, phone, and internet.
• Equity: Stock options upon hire and promotion with a 10-year exercise window.
• Health: 100% covered health, vision, and dental insurance for you and your dependents.
• Time Off: Unlimited flexible time off.
• Parental Leave: 18 weeks for birthing parents and 12 weeks for non-birthing parents.