Senior Software Engineer (Containers) United States - Remote

Chainguard; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly culture

Equity stock options

Health insurance covered

Flexible time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Chainguard is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Guarded Containers team and shape Chainguard Images. This role focuses on feature development, turning ideas into shipped capabilities, while evolving tooling and infrastructure to support growth.

You will guide technical decisions and set high standards for quality, collaborating across product, design, and engineering. You will design and ship new capabilities that expand product value, work with stakeholders from concept to

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software development experience with strong fundamentals in data structures and algorithms.
• Experience with containers and container registries, Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience writing Go services or tools.
• Experience with Terraform or other IaC tools; designing reusable modules.
• Strong English communication; able to work autonomously.

Responsibilities

• Design and build new features and services that make Chainguard Images more powerful and valuable to customers.
• Partner with product, design, and engineering to scope, design, and ship product improvements from concept to production.
• Own technical decisions for the features you build, balancing customer impact and maintainability.
• Develop robust tools that support the growing image build system.
• Contribute to a culture of craftsmanship, ownership, and continuous improvement.

Skills

5+ years experience

Data structures & algorithms

Go

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

English communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Makefiles

Toolchains

Terraform

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.

Senior Software Engineer, Guarded Containers

The role, in a nutshell:

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Guarded Containers team and help shape the future of Chainguard Images — our core product. This is a product-driven, feature-development role: you'll design and ship new capabilities that directly expand what our product can do for customers, work cross-functionally to turn ideas into shipped features. Alongside building new functionality, you'll help evolve the tooling and infrastructure that supports it, and help uphold the quality bar our customers expect. You'll guide technical decisions and help set the standard for excellence on the team.

What you’ll do:

• Design and build new features and services that make Chainguard Images more powerful, compelling, and valuable to customers — this is a feature-first role, not a maintenance role.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders (product, design, and engineering) to scope, design, and ship product improvements from concept to production.
• Own technical decisions for the features you build, balancing customer impact, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
• Develop robust tools and services that support our growing image build system, ensuring it scales alongside new product capabilities.
• Contribute to a team culture that values craftsmanship, ownership, and continuous improvement.

What we're looking for:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of experience in software development, with strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, compilers, Makefiles, and toolchains
• A product mindset — genuine interest in building features end-to-end and understanding how technical choices translate into customer value
• Expertise with containers, container registries, Docker, Kubernetes, and the broader ecosystem
• Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code tools, including designing reusable, well-organized modules
• Experience writing services or tools in Go
• Strong communication skills, proficiency in English, and the ability to work autonomously, take initiative, and proactively seek help when needed

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.

• 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.

At this time, Chainguard is unable to provide employment sponsorship.