The posting
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:
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.
What we're looking for:
- 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
Base Salary Range
$229,000—$258,000 USD
About Us
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.
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