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Chainguard is a venture-backed software supply-chain security company that delivers hardened, secure, production-ready builds of open source software. The company serves Fortune 500 enterprises and global leaders including OpenAI, Snap Inc., Snowflake, and others.
As Principal Product Security Researcher, you will lead Chainguard's product security research function end-to-end. This is a strategic, company-wide role focused on mapping emerging threats, translating threat intelligence into product and organizational strategy, and keeping Chainguard several moves ahead of attackers across the entire product portfolio.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own the product security research agenda by scanning the broader ecosystem, identifying emerging attack patterns, and translating them into clear risks and opportunities for Chainguard and customers
- Shape security direction across products and platforms by partnering with Product, Engineering, and Security leadership to embed findings into roadmaps, architecture decisions, and long-term plans
- Drive industry-wide agenda and discussion topics, helping the broader community understand emerging risks and why they matter
- Research emerging threats and trends in software supply chain and product security, analyzing their impact on Chainguard's products and customers
- Design creative mitigations across people, process, and technology into pragmatic defenses that get adopted
- Partner with executive and senior engineering leadership to drive org-level security strategy and influence key roadmap decisions
- Identify systematic weaknesses in systems, structures, and processes, developing plans that fix root causes
- Mentor and uplevel others across Product Security and Engineering on strategic threat thinking and long-term security posture
- Balance input from across the organization and deliver value for different functions
- Represent Chainguard externally through talks, conferences, and thought leadership
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys turning ambiguous, fast-moving threat intelligence into concrete, multi-quarter plans that change how a company operates.
Requirements:
- Deep experience in product or application security with a track record of leading research or threat-focused work that drove clear, company-level outcomes
- Expert knowledge across multiple domains such as secure architecture, application/product security, software supply chain, and org-level risk management; ability to balance security, velocity, and reliability
- Comfort owning ambiguous, cross-functional problems and turning them into structured, prioritized initiatives that ship and stick
- Proven ability to present complex ideas to executive stakeholders, gaining alignment and driving decision-making at the highest levels
- Stay at the cutting edge of industry trends, tooling, and research methods; ability to put latest research into pragmatic practice
- Work independently with high ownership while being a generous collaborator
- Comfort in fast-evolving, uncertain contexts and ability to build structure
About Chainguard
AI / Data / Infrastructure; Legal / Compliance / Risk — software supply-chain security and trusted container images.
