Head of Total Rewards

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.

Our customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake.

Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.

The role, in a nutshell: We're looking for a Head 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.

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.

What You'll Do:

• Own and set Chainguard's total rewards strategy across compensation and benefits
• Manage and develop the Total Rewards team
• 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
• 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
• Stay ahead of market trends in compensation and benefits, helping Chainguard remain competitive for talent against major players in the market
• Oversee banding, market pricing, and merit cycles, in partnership with the Compensation Manager
• Advise leadership on comp and benefits strategy tied to headcount growth and cost management as the company scales
• Build scalable total rewards processes as the team and company grow

What We're Looking For:

• 8-10 years of progressive compensation and benefits experience, including 3+ years in a management capacity.
• Proven experience setting total rewards strategy, with a 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 a growth stage comparable to scaling from roughly 1,000 to 3,000+ employees
• End-to-end experience running compensation cycles — job architecture, market pricing, merit/promotion planning, and 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 some ambiguity and building process where it doesn't yet exist
• Relevant experience is valued over certifications
• This is a people-manager role reporting into the VP overseeing People

Why This Role: 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.

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.