Principal Product Security Researcher

Chainguard is the trusted source for open source, delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of open source software. As a Principal Product Security Researcher, you will lead the product security research function end-to-end: mapping emerging threats, turning insight into strategy, and helping Chainguard stay ahead of attackers across its entire product portfolio.

Responsibilities

Own the product security research agenda, scanning the broader ecosystem, identifying emerging attack patterns, and translating them into clear risks and opportunities for Chainguard and its customers; Shape security direction across products and platforms, partnering with Product, Engineering, and Security leadership to embed findings into roadmaps, architecture decisions, and long-term plans; Drive the agenda and discussion topics across the industry; Research emerging threats and trends in software supply chain and product security, and analyze their impact on Chainguard's products and customers; Design creative mitigations across people, process, and technology that get adopted; Partner with executive and senior engineering leadership to drive org-level security strategy, influence roadmap decisions, and secure buy-in for big, complex changes; Identify systematic weaknesses and develop plans that fix root causes; Mentor and uplevel others across Product Security and Engineering; Take input from across the organisation, balance stakeholders, and deliver value for different functions; Represent Chainguard externally through talks, conferences, and thought leadership

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, and knowing how to balance security, velocity, and reliability; Comfortable 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, and put them into practice in a pragmatic way; Work independently and with high ownership, while still being a generous collaborator; Comfortable in fast-evolving, uncertain contexts and can build structure

Benefits

Flexible & remote-first culture with team meetup opportunities and bi-annual destination summits; Monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs; Stock options upon hire and promotion, with participation in secondary offerings and 10 years to exercise options; 100% covered health, vision and dental insurance premiums for employee and dependents; Flexible time off; 18 weeks paid parental leave for birthing parents and 12 weeks for non-birthing parents