Staff Software Engineer, Libraries

Chainguard

full-time

Posted on: 1/24/2026

Location Type: Remote

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About the role

Own technical direction and architecture for JS (npm) ecosystem infrastructure, supporting high-quality and secure build, test, and distribution automation for libraries.
Design, implement, and optimize systems for automated artifact creation, update, validation, vulnerability scanning, remediation, and SBOM and provenance generation for npm packages.
Build and maintain internal developer tools: bundler plugins, CLI utilities, code generators, and meta-tooling that improve the workflows for library and package maintenance.
Develop and debug integrations for modern JS build systems and package managers.
Solve complex dependency resolution issues, manage monorepo orchestration, and drive improvements in infrastructure automation.
Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to set technical direction, drive roadmap execution, and establish process excellence for scalable package maintenance.
Mentor, review, and enable other engineers by sharing systems knowledge, debugging strategies, and 'meta' tooling insights.
Partner with internal teams (Delivery, Sustaining, Platform, Security) to ensure our JavaScript ecosystem services meet critical SLAs and SLOs.

8+ years building and maintaining infrastructure for JavaScript/TypeScript package ecosystems (npm) or large-scale open-source projects in a similar domain.
Proven record in building, shipping, and maintaining developer tools – e.g., bundler plugins, CLI tools, code generators, or custom automation pipelines for JS packages.
Deep familiarity with modern JS build tooling: esbuild, Rollup, Webpack, Vite, Bun, SWC, Turbopack, Babel, PostCSS, Rome/Biome, Deno, and the associated tradeoffs between ESM/CJS/modules.
Hands-on experience orchestrating large monorepos (Lerna, Nx, Turborepo or custom setups) and solving infra-scale dependency or module resolution problems in production.
Comfortable working with build system code written in Go (our infra is Go-based), plus solid experience in JavaScript/TypeScript. Other language ecosystems are a strong plus.
Demonstrated ability to debug and resolve critical infrastructure and package-building failures at scale.
Experience with cloud-native technologies and infrastructure, including containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), cloud services (e.g., GCP, AWS), infrastructure as code practices (e.g., Terraform).
Excellent cross-team communication skills: can collaborate with product, engineering, ops, and security teams; proactively document, mentor, and share lessons learned.

Benefits

Flexible & Remote-First Culture: Work remotely with team meetup opportunities, bi-annual destination summits, and a monthly stipend for coworking spaces, phone and internet costs.
Our Approach to Equity: 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!).
100% Covered Health Insurance: We cover 100% of your health, vision and dental insurance premiums for you and your dependents. Nothing comes out of your paycheck.
∞ Flexible Time Off: Take the time you need – to do our best work, we need to recharge and reset.
18 Weeks Paid Parental Leave: 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.

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

JavaScriptTypeScriptnpmGoesbuildRollupWebpackViteDockerTerraform

Soft Skills

communicationmentoringcollaborationproblem-solvingdebuggingprocess excellenceknowledge sharingleadership