Staff Software Engineer, Malware Detection

Chainguard

. Lead engineering of Chainguard's malware-scanning platform .

Posted 9/15/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesLead💰 $170,000 - $231,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in building and operating production backend systems, with a strong focus on malware detection, software supply chain security, and high-throughput event-driven pipelines. Proven ability to lead technical teams, mentor engineers, and collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Go ProgrammingBackend Infrastructure ManagementMalware DetectionHigh-Throughput Event-Driven PipelinesTechnical Leadership

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Backend Systems EngineeringProduction Services DeploymentStatic AnalysisAPI DevelopmentMetrics ManagementVulnerability ManagementIncident ResponseDeterministic AnalysisFeedback Loop EngineeringPlatform Architecture

Soft Skills

Cross-Functional CollaborationMentoringTechnical Judgment

Tools & Technologies

Measurement PipelinesDashboardsScan OrchestrationVerdict StoragePolicy Management

Industry Keywords

Software Supply Chain SecurityMalware DetectionVulnerability ManagementOperational TradeoffsDetection Quality

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead engineering of Chainguard's malware-scanning platform
Own platform architecture, scale, and reliability
Build measurement pipelines, metrics, and dashboards for detection coverage and precision
Engineer feedback loops between Engineering and Product Security for rapid detection evaluation and shipping
Build systems for reviewing, escalating, and correcting detections, including bulk correction at ecosystem scale
Own scan orchestration, verdict storage, and APIs used by consuming products
Scale scanning from Libraries to Containers, Agent Skills, and future artifact types
Balance detection quality, performance, extensibility, throughput, latency, and cost
Build deterministic static analysis and AI-assisted reasoning over artifact contents
Take emerging-threat detections from research prototype to production
Build APIs and services for investigating, enforcing, and appealing scanner findings
Build backend services for policy management and enterprise-scale operations
Operate the scanner in the critical path of customer installations, including alerting, queue health, verdict-before-serve guarantees, and incident response
Mentor engineers and influence Product, Security, Design, and GTM partners

Requirements

What you’ll need

Multiple years building and operating production backend or infrastructure systems
Clear track record of staff-level ownership and technical leadership
Strong Go experience, or deep backend systems experience with ability to ramp quickly in Go
Experience owning highly technical platforms or backend infrastructure supporting multiple products or internal customers
Experience with high-throughput, event-driven pipelines where throughput, latency, and correctness matter
Strong understanding of software supply chain security, malware detection, vulnerability management, or adjacent security domains
Demonstrated success making engineering design and prioritization decisions in technically complex and ambiguous environments
Comfort owning and reducing metrics such as false-positive rate
Experience deploying and operating production services
Strong judgment around reliability, observability, and operational tradeoffs
Experience mentoring engineers and raising the bar on design and code review
Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills with Product, Security, Design, and GTM partners

Benefits

Comp & perks

Work remotely with team meetup opportunities
Bi-annual destination summits
Monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs
Stock options upon hire and promotion
Participation in secondary offerings
10 years to exercise stock options
100% covered health, vision and dental insurance premiums for employee and dependents
Flexible time off
18 weeks paid parental leave for birthing parents
12 weeks paid parental leave for non-birthing parents
Option to use parental leave all at once or throughout the child's first year