Director of Total Rewards

Chainguard; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 204,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible & Remote-First Culture

Stock options and equity participation

100% Covered Health Insurance (self &/

Flexible Time Off

Parental Leave - 18 weeks

Job summary

Chainguard is seeking a Director of Total Rewards to own compensation and benefits strategy as we scale from a startup to the next growth phase. You will lead the Total Rewards team and partner with the business to extend programs globally, including the UK, Canada, and Germany.

You’ll shape pay, benefits, and rewards, align with cost management, and drive scalable processes while maintaining a benefits-rich, employee-first culture. This is a senior, strategic role with company-wide impact.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years in compensation and/or benefits with 3+ years in a leadership role.
• Proven total rewards strategy development and execution.
• Experience scaling rewards programs in high-growth SaaS/startups (1,000–3,000+ employees).
• End-to-end compensation cycles: structure, pricing, merit, bonus design.
• Equity program design and cap table fluency (Carta/Shareworks or similar).
• Strong market pricing/benchmarking knowledge (Radford/Pave/Mercer).
• International experience across multiple regions; EOR partnerships preferred.
• Pay equity/compliance across multi-state and international jurisdictions.
• Proven team leadership and people development.

Responsibilities

• Own Chainguard’s total rewards strategy across compensation and benefits.
• Lead and develop the Total Rewards team.
• Shape global compensation/benefits for international expansion (UK, Canada, Germany, etc.).
• Balance employee experience with cost efficiency and retire underutilized programs.
• Track market trends to keep Chainguard competitive for talent.
• Oversee banding, pricing, and merit cycles with the Compensation Manager.
• Advise leadership on comp/benefits linked to headcount growth and cost management.
• Build scalable total rewards processes for a growing organization.

Skills

Total Rewards

Compensation Strategy

Benefits Design

People Management

Global/International Compensation

Equity Program Design

Market Benchmarking

EOR Collaboration

Pay Equity & Compliance

Tools

Carta

Shareworks

Radford

Pave

Mercer

Job description

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 Director of Total Rewards to own compensation and benefits strategy as Chainguard scales from a startup into its next phase of growth. This role will lead our Total Rewards team, managing our Compensation Manager and Benefits team, and will be responsible for setting the strategy that keeps us competitive as we compete for talent against some of the biggest names in tech.

You’ll partner closely with the business to build a total rewards approach that’s both employee-first and cost-effective, while helping us extend our compensation and benefits programs into new countries as we expand internationally. This is a role with real ownership and runway. You’ll shape how we think about pay, benefits, and rewards as the company roughly doubles in size over the next several years.

What You’ll Do:

• Own and set Chainguard’s total rewards strategy across compensation and benefits
• Manage and develop the Total Rewards team
• Lead our approach to global compensation and benefits strategy as we expand into new international markets, including the UK, Canada, and Germany, with more countries to follow
• Partner with the business to balance employee experience with cost efficiency, identifying legacy programs or underutilized benefits that can be redesigned or retired without eroding our benefits-rich culture
• Stay ahead of market trends in compensation and benefits, helping Chainguard remain competitive for talent against major players in the market
• Oversee banding, market pricing, and merit cycles, in partnership with the Compensation Manager
• Advise leadership on comp and benefits strategy tied to headcount growth and cost management as the company scales
• Build scalable total rewards processes as the team and company grow

What We’re Looking For:

• 8-10 years of progressive compensation and benefits experience, including 3+ years in a management capacity.
• Proven experience setting total rewards strategy, with a strong background in either compensation or benefits (and working knowledge of the other)
• Experience scaling total rewards programs at a high-growth SaaS or startup company, ideally through a growth stage comparable to scaling from roughly 1,000 to 3,000+ employees
• End-to-end experience running compensation cycles — job architecture, market pricing, merit/promotion planning, and bonus design
• Experience with equity program design and administration, including cap table fluency (Carta, Shareworks, or similar)
• Strong command of market pricing and benchmarking tools (Radford, Pave, Mercer, or similar)
• International experience required, particularly across EMEA; experience in Japan, Singapore, or South America is a strong plus
• Experience partnering with or managing an Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees
• Working knowledge of pay equity and compliance considerations across multi-state and international jurisdictions
• Strong track record managing and developing a team
• Comfort operating with some ambiguity and building process where it doesn’t yet exist
• Relevant experience is valued over certifications
• This is a people-manager role reporting into the VP overseeing People

Why This Role: Chainguard is scaling quickly, both domestically and internationally, and our total rewards strategy needs to scale with it. This role sits at the center of that work — helping us stay a benefits-rich, employee-first company while making smart, sustainable decisions about where and how we invest.

You’ll have the opportunity to shape compensation and benefits strategy across a rapidly growing, increasingly global organization, with real support to build the team and programs needed to get there.

Base Salary Range

$204,000 - $240,000 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.

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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Chainguard’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.