Senior Software Engineer – Container Images, Security

RapidFort; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first environment

Equity participation

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

RapidFort is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to own the container image lifecycle, including building minimal, hardened images and remediating CVEs at scale.

You will work across Linux distributions and runtimes, automate pipelines, and ensure secure, reproducible image delivery with SBOMs and Kubernetes compatibility.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in software engineering or Linux systems.
• Experience building secure, production-ready container images.
• Hands-on CVE remediation in Linux packages and images.
• Strong scripting automation and internal tooling skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain minimal, hardened container images across Linux distributions and runtimes.
• Own end-to-end CVE remediation across OS packages, libraries, and dependencies.
• Troubleshoot complex package and runtime issues while preserving functionality.
• Reduce image attack surface by removing unnecessary packages and dependencies.
• Automate image builds, scans, remediation, testing, and publishing.
• Develop tooling for image versioning, updates, metadata, and traceability.
• Generate and maintain SBOMs for software supply chain visibility.
• Validate image functionality and runtime compatibility with Kubernetes.

Skills

Linux

Docker images

CVE remediation

SBOM generation

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Vulnerability scanners

Python

Go

Bash

Tools

Trivy

Grype

Clair

Cosign

Sigstore

Job description

Senior Software Engineer — Container Images & Security
Citizenship Requirement: U.S. citizenship is required for this position due to work supporting federal government customers.
Location: Remote
Team: Engineering / Curated Images
Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Role

RapidFort is looking for a hands-on Senior Software Engineer to join our Curated Images team and help build, secure, and maintain production-ready container images at scale.
This role combines deep Linux engineering, vulnerability remediation, and software automation. You will own the container image lifecycle—from building minimal, reproducible images to analyzing and remediating CVEs, validating runtime compatibility, and automating ongoing maintenance and publishing.
You will work closely with engineering, infrastructure, and security teams to deliver secure, reliable images across Linux distributions and application stacks, including Python, Go, and Java. Success requires the ability to investigate package and dependency issues, implement fixes, and build automation that makes those fixes repeatable.

What You’ll Do

Design, build, and maintain minimal, hardened container images across Linux distributions and application runtimes.
Own end-to-end CVE remediation across OS packages, libraries, runtimes, and dependencies, including analysis, patching, rebuilding, and validation.
Troubleshoot complex package compatibility, dependency, build, and runtime issues while preserving application functionality.
Reduce image attack surface and size by removing unnecessary packages, binaries, and dependencies.
Build and improve automated pipelines for image builds, vulnerability scanning, remediation, testing, and publishing.
Develop tooling to manage image versioning, dependency updates, metadata, and release traceability.
Generate, validate, and maintain SBOMs to support software supply chain visibility and compliance.
Validate image functionality, reproducibility, and compatibility with Kubernetes and other containerized environments.
Collaborate with platform, infrastructure, and security teams to define image hardening standards and integrate curated images into development and deployment workflows.
Maintain clear documentation that helps developers adopt and use curated images.
Continuously improve remediation speed, image quality, build reliability, and operational efficiency.

What You Bring

5+ years of relevant experience in software engineering, Linux systems engineering, platform engineering, DevSecOps, or SRE.
Deep understanding of Linux systems, with hands‑on experience across distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine, or RHEL.
Strong experience building and optimizing Docker images, including multi-stage builds, image layering, and container filesystem structures.
Proven experience investigating and remediating CVEs in Linux packages and container images, including patching, rebuilding, and validating fixes.
Strong working knowledge of Linux package management and dependency resolution using tools such as apt, apk, yum/dnf, or rpm.
Strong programming or scripting skills in Python, Go, or Bash, with experience building maintainable automation and internal tooling.
Experience developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or similar tools.
Hands‑on experience with vulnerability scanners such as Trivy, Grype, or Clair, along with SBOM generation.
Solid understanding of Kubernetes concepts, container lifecycles, and image deployment requirements.
Ability to independently troubleshoot complex technical issues and collaborate effectively across engineering teams.

Nice to Have

Experience building minimal or distroless images and maintaining a large catalog of container images.
Experience building Linux packages from source or backporting security fixes.
Familiarity with SBOM formats and tools such as SPDX, CycloneDX, and Syft.
Experience with image signing, provenance, and verification using Cosign or Sigstore.
Knowledge of software supply chain security frameworks such as SLSA.
Familiarity with container registries such as Docker Hub, Harbor, or Amazon ECR.
Experience with Helm, Kustomize, GitOps, or infrastructure‑as‑code workflows.
Experience in a startup environment or regulated industry.
What Success Looks Like
Reliable delivery of production‑ready, hardened images with near‑zero exploitable CVEs.
Scalable automation for image builds, remediation, validation, and publishing.
Faster remediation turnaround while maintaining runtime compatibility and image quality.
Measurable reductions in image size and attack surface.
Repeatable standards for secure, reproducible container image delivery.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $130,000–$200,000, depending on experience and technical depth.
Equity participation.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
Remote‑first work environment.
Opportunity to solve complex Linux, container, and software supply chain security challenges.
Career growth within a rapidly scaling cybersecurity company.