The role, in a nutshell:
As one of the four Engineering Managers on our Delivery team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Chainguard’s core product offerings. You will lead a talented, remote team of Engineers across India and Europe, focused on delivering minimal, secure, zero-CVE container images.
To achieve this, your team will leverage Chainguard-developed open-source tools, such as Melange, apko, and our Linux distribution, Wolfi. You will ensure that all components are built from source, reproducible, and meet our rigorous quality standards.
Your team operates on a prioritized list of work, driving tasks through a queue-based system to ensure the most critical images are delivered efficiently and effectively.
You’ll collaborate closely with other engineering managers within Delivery and across the broader engineering group, while also working with our go-to-market team and occasionally engaging directly with customers.
Your leadership will be essential in ensuring products are delivered on time and meet our high standards, fully aligned with our mission to secure the software supply chain by default.
What you’ll do:
Team Leadership: Lead and manage a team of engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence. You will be responsible for setting clear goals, managing performance, and ensuring that the team operates efficiently and effectively.
Technical Contributions: Lead by example. This role provides the opportunity to get hands-on with some of the technical work, including fulfilling new images and process automation.
Hiring and Team Building: Partner with our recruiting team to organize and lead the interviewing process, including screening and assessing candidates to ensure they possess the necessary technical skills and are a good cultural fit.
Backlog Management: Work closely with our Technical Program Manager (TPM) to prioritize and manage the image-building backlog. You’ll ensure that tasks are aligned with both immediate needs and long-term strategic goals, helping the team stay focused and efficient.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Customer Success, Sales, and Partner Support teams to align engineering efforts with customer needs and go-to-market strategies.
Forecasting and Planning: Anticipate future work demands, project timelines, and resource needs, including headcount requirements. You will work closely with senior management to develop estimates and plans that ensure the team is adequately staffed and prepared to meet upcoming challenges.
Technical Contributions: Lead by example, assisting with technical tasks to stay connected with the team’s work and maintain an understanding of the technical challenges they face.
What we’re looking for:
To be considered for this role, candidates must meet all of the following criteria:
Location Requirement: UK (preferred). Other locations in Europe will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Time Zone Collaboration: Must be able to accommodate collaboration with teams based in India, including occasional meetings and coordination during early morning hours within standard UK/Europe working times.
Leadership Experience: 3+ years leadership experience, with a proven track record of leading and developing talent in engineering teams in a high-autonomy, high-trust environment.
Technical Background: At least 3 years of experience in Software Development, DevOps, or Cloud-Native engineering, involving hands-on experience in Linux.
Leadership & Coaching: Experience fostering a culture of learning and growth, mentoring engineers, and providing clear feedback for career development.
Global Collaboration: Must have experience working for a US-centric company, collaborating across multiple time zones, including Europe and the US, in a distributed, remote environment.
Strategic Thinking: Strong ability to anticipate future challenges, plan for growth, and align technical work with broader business objectives.Cloud-Native: Experience leading teams that work with Cloud-Native technologies, including containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), cloud services (e.g., GCP, AWS).
About Us
Chainguard is the secure foundation for software development and deployment. By providing guarded open source software, built from source and updated continuously, Chainguard helps organizations eliminate threats in their software supply chains.
Founded by the industry’s leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, Chainguard has built the largest library of open source software that is secure by default.
Chainguard’s mission is to be the safe source for open source.
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.
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