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Salary: USD 204,000 - 240,000 / annual
Chainguard is seeking a Director of Total Rewards to lead compensation and benefits strategy as the company scales from startup to next-phase growth. You will own total rewards strategy across compensation and benefits, manage and develop the Total Rewards team (including a Compensation Manager and Benefits team), and partner closely with business leadership to build an employee-first, cost-effective approach.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning and setting Chainguard's total rewards strategy across compensation and benefits
- Managing and developing the Total Rewards team
- Leading global compensation and benefits strategy as the company expands into new international markets (UK, Canada, Germany, and beyond)
- Partnering with the business to balance employee experience with cost efficiency, identifying legacy programs or underutilized benefits for redesign or retirement
- Staying ahead of market trends in compensation and benefits to keep Chainguard competitive
- Overseeing banding, market pricing, and merit cycles in partnership with the Compensation Manager
- Advising leadership on compensation and benefits strategy tied to headcount growth and cost management
- Building scalable total rewards processes as the team and company grow
This role reports to the VP overseeing People and offers real ownership and runway to shape how the company thinks about pay, benefits, and rewards as it roughly doubles in size over the next several years.
Chainguard is a venture-backed software supply-chain security company serving Fortune 500 enterprises and global leaders including OpenAI, Snap Inc., Snowflake, and others. The company is remote-first with team meetups, bi-annual destination summits, and benefits including 100% covered health insurance, flexible time off, 18 weeks paid parental leave, and equity with 10-year exercise windows.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8-10 years of progressive compensation and benefits experience, including 3+ years in a management capacity
- Proven experience setting total rewards strategy with strong background in either compensation or benefits (and working knowledge of the other)
- Experience scaling total rewards programs at a high-growth SaaS or startup company, ideally through growth comparable to scaling from ~1,000 to 3,000+ employees
- End-to-end experience running compensation cycles (job architecture, market pricing, merit/promotion planning, bonus design)
- Experience with equity program design and administration, including cap table fluency (Carta, Shareworks, or similar)
- Strong command of market pricing and benchmarking tools (Radford, Pave, Mercer, or similar)
- International experience required, particularly across EMEA; experience in Japan, Singapore, or South America is a strong plus
- Experience partnering with or managing an Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees
- Working knowledge of pay equity and compliance considerations across multi-state and international jurisdictions
- Strong track record managing and developing a team
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and building process where it doesn't yet exist
- Relevant experience is valued over certifications
About Chainguard
AI / Data / Infrastructure; Legal / Compliance / Risk — software supply-chain security and trusted container images.
