Head of Total Rewards

Remote

About the role

<div class="content-intro"><p>Chainguard is the trusted source for open source. By delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers and AI agents rely on, Chainguard helps organizations build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk. <br><br>Our customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake. <br><br>Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.</p></div><p>Chainguard is the trusted source for open source. By delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers and AI agents rely on, Chainguard helps organizations build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk.</p> <p>Our customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake.</p> <p>Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.</p> <p><strong>

The role, in a nutshell:</strong> We're looking for a Director of Total Rewards to own

compensation and

benefits strategy as Chainguard scales from a startup into its next phase of growth. This role will lead our Total Rewards team, managing our

Compensation Manager and

Benefits team, and will be responsible for setting the strategy that keeps us competitive as we compete for talent against some of the biggest names in tech.</p> <p>You'll partner closely with the business to build a total rewards approach that's both employee-first and cost-effective, while helping us extend our

compensation and

benefits programs into new countries as we expand internationally. This is a role with real ownership and runway. You'll shape how we think about pay,

benefits, and rewards as the company roughly doubles in size over the next several years.</p> <p><strong>

What You'll Do:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Own and set Chainguard's total rewards strategy across

compensation and

benefits</li> <li>Manage and develop the Total Rewards team</li> <li>Lead our approach to global

compensation and

benefits strategy as we expand into new international markets, including the UK, Canada, and Germany, with more countries to follow</li> <li>Partner with the business to balance employee experience with cost efficiency, identifying legacy programs or underutilized

benefits that can be redesigned or retired without eroding our

benefits-rich culture</li> <li>Stay ahead of market trends in

compensation and

benefits, helping Chainguard remain competitive for talent against major players in the market</li> <li>Oversee banding, market pricing, and merit cycles, in partnership with the

Compensation Manager</li> <li>Advise leadership on comp and

benefits strategy tied to headcount growth and cost management as the company scales</li> <li>Build scalable total rewards processes as

the team and company grow</li> </ul> <p><strong>

What We're Looking For:</strong></p> <ul> <li>8-10 years of progressive

compensation and

benefits experience, including 3+ years in a management capacity.</li> <li>Proven experience setting total rewards strategy, with a strong background in either

compensation or

benefits (and working knowledge of the other)</li> <li>Experience scaling total rewards programs at a high-growth SaaS or startup company, ideally through a growth stage comparable to scaling from roughly 1,000 to 3,000+ employees</li> <li>End-to-end experience running

compensation cycles — job architecture, market pricing, merit/promotion planning, and

bonus design</li> <li>Experience with equity program design and administration, including cap table fluency (Carta, Shareworks, or similar)</li> <li>Strong command of market pricing and benchmarking tools (Radford, Pave, Mercer, or similar)</li> <li>International experience required, particularly across EMEA; experience in Japan, Singapore, or South America is a strong plus</li> <li>Experience partnering with or managing an Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees</li> <li>Working knowledge of pay equity and compliance considerations across multi-state and international jurisdictions</li> <li>Strong track record managing and developing a team</li> <li>Comfort operating with some ambiguity and building process where it doesn't yet exist</li> <li>Relevant experience is valued over certifications</li> <li>This is a people-manager role reporting into the VP overseeing People</li> </ul> <p><strong>Why This Role:</strong> Chainguard is scaling quickly, both domestically and internationally, and our total rewards strategy needs to scale with it. This role sits at the center of that work — helping us stay a

benefits-rich, employee-first company while making smart, sustainable decisions about where and how we invest.</p> <p>You'll have the opportunity to shape

compensation and

benefits strategy across a rapidly growing, increasingly global organization, with real support to build

the team and programs needed to get there.</p> <p><br><br></p><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="title">Base Salary Range</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$204,000</span><span class="divider">—</span><span>$240,000 USD</span></div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion"><h3>

About Us</h3> <p>We live and breathe our company values:</p> <ul> <li>We are customer obsessed — We focus on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better.</li> <li>We have a bias for intentional action — We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>We trust each other and assume good intentions — We're transparent with decisions to empower team members to make well informed decisions.</li> </ul> <p>A few of the

benefits we offer:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Flexible & Remote-First Culture:</strong> Work remotely with team meetup opportunities, bi-annual destination summits, and a monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs.</li> <li><strong>Our Approach to Equity:</strong> 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!).</li> <li><strong>100% Covered Health Insurance:</strong> We cover 100% of your health, vision and dental insurance premiums for you and your dependents. Nothing comes out of your paycheck.</li> <li><strong>∞ Flexible Time Off:</strong> Take the time you need – to do our best work, we need to recharge and reset.</li> <li><strong>18 Weeks Paid Parental Leave:</strong> 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.</li> </ul> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Chainguard will process your personal data in accordance with <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.chainguard.dev/legal/candidate-privacy-notice">Chainguard's Global Candidate Privacy Notice</a></span>.</p> <p>©2026 Chainguard. All Rights Reserved.</p></div>

About Chainguard

Chainguard provides hardened, minimal container images that are continuously rebuilt from source in secure environments, aiming to eliminate known vulnerabilities and ensure end-to-end integrity. These images come with built-in cryptographic signatures, Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), and Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) provenance. In addition to container images, Chainguard offers a catalog of guarded Java dependencies through its Chainguard Libraries, built securely from source in SLSA-certified infrastructure. The company also contributes to and maintains several widely used open source projects, reflecting its commitment to the open source community.

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Job details

Salary

$204,000 - $240,000

Location

Remote

Company

NameChainguard
IndustryBusiness/Productivity Software
Team Size4

Funding

Total raised

$892M

Last stage

Series A

Investors

Kleiner Perkins
IVP
Sequoia
General Catalyst
LLightspeed

Founders

Dan Lorenc

Dan Lorenc

Co-Founder & CEO

LinkedIn
Matt Moore

Matt Moore

Co-Founder & CTO

LinkedIn
KL

Kim Lewandowski

Co-Founder & CPO

What happens next.

No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.

01

Confirm the fit

A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.

02

I pitch you to the company

I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.

03

A meeting lands on your calendar

If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.