Senior Software Engineer (Guarded Containers)

In a word, BUILD.

If you're the kind of engineer who thrives on clean systems, tight loops, and big technical challenges, this one’s for you. You’ll be joining the Guarded Containers team—the builders and stewards of Chainguard Images, our flagship product. We’re talking about the base layer of trust for supply chain security—and you’ll be shaping the foundation.

We're growing fast and scaling even faster. That means we need folks who can not only write great code but also think 10x:

• How do we evolve our image tooling infrastructure as demand surges?
  
  
• What new features do our customers need before they know it?
  
  
• How do we enforce quality with automation instead of overhead?
  
  

If you’re excited about working on one of the most technically sophisticated products in the secure software supply chain—and doing it with a team that’s collaborative, opinionated, and execution-focused—you’ll love it here.

What You’ll Do:

🛠 Build the Future of Chainguard Images
Design and implement new features that make our container images even more secure, performant, and scalable.

🧰 Level Up Our Tooling and Infra
Develop robust internal systems that scale with us—everything from build pipelines to container registries to custom tooling that only we could dream up.

📏 Codify and Enforce Product Quality
Define standards, write tests, and ship tooling that helps us stay high-quality and high-velocity at the same time.

🤝 Collaborate Across Boundaries
Work closely with engineering, product, customers, and leadership to help define roadmap and shape the future of the product.

What We’re Looking For:

• ✅ 5+ years of real-world software engineering experience
  
  
• ✅ Deep understanding of data structures, algorithms, compilers, toolchains, and how the pieces fit together
  
  
• ✅ Fluency in containers, Docker, Kubernetes, and their ecosystems
  
  
• ✅ Experience with Terraform or other IaC tools, and a knack for modular, reusable infra
  
  
• ✅ Strong automation chops—Python, Go, Bash, or similar
  
  
• ✅ Excellent communication, autonomy, and the instincts to know when to ask for help
  
  

Bonus Points For:

• 💡 Contributor to open-source projects (especially in the container or infra space)
  
  
• 🔥 A track record of bringing order to chaos in fast-moving environments
  
  
• 🧪 Curiosity, initiative, and the courage to try weird things that just might work

Dive Deeper

Curious what we’re actually working on? Take a look at Chainguard Academy and see what we mean by "secure by default."

If you’re ready to build systems that secure the global software supply chain—and have fun doing it—let’s talk.