Principal Product Security Researcher

Chainguard

5d • $201,000 - $226,000 • Remote

About The Position

As a Principal Product Security Researcher at Chainguard, you will lead the product security research function end-to-end. This involves mapping emerging threats, translating insights into strategy, and ensuring Chainguard stays ahead of attackers across its product portfolio. The role focuses on preparing for future attacks by scanning the broader ecosystem, identifying emerging attack patterns, and translating them into clear risks and opportunities for Chainguard and its customers. You will shape security direction across products and platforms, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Security leadership to embed findings into roadmaps, architecture decisions, and long-term plans. The ideal candidate operates with a holistic view of the ecosystem, spots issues early, and helps others navigate with confidence. This role is for individuals who enjoy turning ambiguous, fast-moving threat intelligence into concrete, multi-quarter plans that influence company operations.

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.
• Proven ability to own ambiguous, cross-functional problems and turn 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.
• Ability to stay at the cutting edge of industry trends, tooling, and research methods and put them into practice pragmatically.
• Ability to work independently and with high ownership, while also being a generous collaborator.
• Comfortable in fast-evolving, uncertain contexts and can build structure.
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Responsibilities

• Research emerging threats & 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 are pragmatic defenses and get adopted.
• Lead large-scale, multi-quarter initiatives that materially reduce risk or improve security maturity across multiple product lines and platforms.
• Partner with executive and senior engineering leadership to drive org-level security strategy, influence key roadmap decisions, and secure buy-in for significant changes.
• Identify systematic weaknesses (in systems, structures, and habits) and develop plans that fix root causes in ways that persist.
• Mentor and uplevel others across Product Security and Engineering by helping teams think more strategically about threats, risk, and long-term security posture.
• Represent Chainguard externally through talks, conferences, and thought leadership.

Benefits

• Flexible & Remote-First Culture
• Stock options upon hire and promotion
• 10 years to exercise stock options
• 100% covered health, vision and dental insurance premiums for you and your dependents
• Flexible Time Off
• 18 weeks paid parental leave for birthing parents
• 12 weeks paid parental leave for non-birthing parents

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed