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Salary: USD 204,000 - 240,000 / annual
Chainguard is a venture-backed software supply-chain security company delivering hardened, secure, production-ready builds of open source software. The company serves Fortune 500 enterprises and global leaders including OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake, and is backed by top-tier investors including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
You will lead Chainguard's People Operations function as the company scales and expands internationally. This is a high-impact leadership role central to the company's ambitious global expansion strategy. You will own the core employee lifecycle processes—onboarding, offboarding, compliance training, and job changes—while leading the operational work of opening new legal entities in the UK, Canada, Germany, and additional countries planned for next year.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading the People Operations team (currently one manager with two direct reports) and growing it as the company expands
- Owning and scaling core employee lifecycle processes across all countries where Chainguard operates
- Leading the operational work of establishing new international legal entities, including compliance, payroll, and legal navigation
- Managing and expanding the partnership with the company's Employer of Record (EOR) provider, given reliance on remote employees across approximately 19 countries
- Partnering cross-functionally with Finance and Legal to ensure compliant operations in each new country
- Building scalable People Operations processes, templates, and resources
- Making HR Operations more visible and accessible to employees
- Bringing AI fluency to the function, using AI to design smarter, more efficient processes and improve employee experience
The role offers real ownership over how People Operations scales globally, with the opportunity to build and grow a team as the company continues to expand. You'll work in a remote-first culture with team meetup opportunities and bi-annual destination summits.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8–10+ years in HR/People Operations, including 3+ years in a leadership/management capacity
- Proven ownership of HRIS strategy—has led an implementation, migration, or major optimization (Workday, Rippling, ADP, or similar)
- Experience owning the full employee lifecycle: onboarding, offboarding, org changes, data integrity, and process design
- Background managing HR compliance operations—I-9s, leave administration, policy administration, audits
- Experience standing up or scaling a people ops function in a high-growth SaaS or startup environment
- International experience required, particularly across EMEA; experience in Japan, Singapore, or South America is a strong plus
- Direct experience opening new international entities and standing up HR compliance and operations in new countries
- Experience partnering with or managing an Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees
- Collaborative, solutions-oriented approach with a "yes, how can I help" mindset
- Strong track record managing and developing a team
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and building process where it doesn't yet exist
About Chainguard
AI / Data / Infrastructure; Legal / Compliance / Risk — software supply-chain security and trusted container images.
