Principal Software Engineer (Containers)

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:

The successful candidate will be a tech lead for our Containers team, whose mission is to develop new features for our customers, build and improve tooling and infrastructure, and maintain product quality standards for our core product – Chainguard Images. As a Principal engineer, you'll own critical, technically complex areas of our stack, shape long-term technical direction, and drive outcomes that extend beyond your immediate team. You'll collaborate closely with team members, guide technical decisions, and promote a culture of excellence.

We’re looking for someone excited to work cross functionally with Product and help drive the future direction of Chainguard Images.

What you’ll do:

Collaborate with teammates and cross-functional teams to design innovative services and features that enhance the core product, making it more compelling and valuable.

Develop robust tools and services to continue to improve our image build system as it scales.

Own high-impact, deeply technical components of the Chainguard stack, serving as the subject matter expert in those areas

Participate in long-term planning and roadmap discussions, helping identify the key problems the team needs to solve and ensuring they get solved

Work closely with Product on validating new ideas and launching new features.

Mentor engineers and raise the bar for engineering quality across the organization

What we're looking for:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience


• 10+ years of experience in software development


• Prior experience leading teams of at least 5 engineers


• Expertise with containers, container registries, Docker, Kubernetes and its greater ecosystem


• Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code, and proficiency in creating modules and organizing resources logically for reuse.


• Experience writing services or tools in Go


• Strong communication skills, proficiency in English, ability to work autonomously, take initiative, and seek help proactively when necessary.

Nice to haves

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

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.

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 .

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