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Chainguard Salary

Chainguard Salary

Chainguard pays a median of $171K ($152K–$218K) across 39 public job postings (2025–2026).

💰 $152K–$218K salary range

Median: $171K  ·  Based on 39 public Chainguard job postings  ·  Updated October 21, 2026


This Chainguard salary benchmark is built from public job postings — no private placement data. Figures reflect base salary only (equity is separate) and are refreshed as new postings are collected.

📊 Salary breakdown

Chainguard · pay benchmark · updated October 21, 2026
$171K
inc. eng · sales · ops
All-role median
$152K–$218K
Typical range
$258K view JD
Highest base · Principal Software Engineer, Containers
39
Open roles
~5 yrs
Typical exp.
+18
33 last 90d
New last 30d
ⓘ Base salary only — 97% of roles mention equity · options
IC salary by seniority
Senior
$171K (11)
Staff
$218K (5)
Salary by department · median & top base
sales
$325K (7)
r&d engineering
$218K · $258K top (7)
Highest-paying skills
MEDDPICC $325KKubernetes $218KDocker $218KTerraform $201KOpenAI $197KSnowflake $195KGo $183KSpark $171K

Highest-paying open roles at Chainguard

Chainguard salary by department

  • sales: $325K median (7 roles)
  • r&d engineering: $218K median · $258K top base — Principal Software Engineer, Containers (view JD) (7 roles)

Chainguard engineering & product salary by seniority

  • Senior: $171K median · $231K top base — Senior Product Manager, AI CICD (view JD) (11)
  • Staff: $218K median · $258K top base — Principal Software Engineer, Containers (view JD) (5)

Chainguard salary by location

  • Remote: $171K median · $258K top base — Principal Software Engineer, Containers (view JD) (38 roles)

Remote work at Chainguard

100% of Chainguard's disclosed-pay roles are remote-friendly.

What Chainguard looks for

Most-required skills across these postings: Snowflake (14) · OpenAI (14) · AWS (12) · Kubernetes (12) · GCP (10) · Azure (8) · Go (7) · MEDDPICC (7) · Docker (6) · CI/CD (6).

Benefits & perks at Chainguard

Commonly listed: medical (38) · dental (38) · parental (38) · vision (1) · unlimited-pto (1) · pto (1).

About Chainguard

Chainguard is Series D stage · 251–500 employees · founded 2021 · HQ Kirkland, Washington. This context shapes pay: later-stage, well-funded companies tend to anchor base salary higher.

Experience & background at Chainguard

Roles typically ask for around 5 years of experience (up to 10+ for the most senior). Most postings don't state a degree requirement; of the 1 that do, Bachelor's is most common.

Posted pay vs. total compensation

The figures on this page are the midpoint of each posting's advertised salary range (which, for commission roles, includes on-target earnings). Equity is a separate — and often large — component of total compensation, especially at high-growth and AI-native companies; 97% of these postings reference equity (options). Equity is not included in the medians above.

Chainguard total compensation signals

Beyond the posted-range midpoint, postings indicate: 92% include commission; on-target earnings run about $275K where stated (11 roles); common structures: stipend. Bonus, commission, and equity vary by role and are not included in the base medians above.

Chainguard hiring activity

Chainguard has 39 open roles right now, and this benchmark draws on 39 public job postings with disclosed pay. 18 of these roles were first seen in the last 30 days (33 in the last 90). Mostly full-time, with 1 contract role in the mix.

💼 Similar companies hiring

Compare Chainguard's pay with companies in the same space:

CompanyMedian payvs ChainguardStage
Zscaler$185K↑ +8%Public
GitLab$185K↑ +9%Public
Fastly$199K↑ +17%Public
Aviatrix$150K↓ -12%Series E
Myriad360$145K↓ -15%—
Illumio$185K↑ +9%Series F

💸 Companies that pay more than Chainguard

Netskope · Semgrep · Tanium · Tines · Veeam Software

📚 Salary guides & rankings

Top-Paying Tech Companies for Engineers (2026) · Highest-Paying Cities for Software Engineers · Highest-Paying Engineering Roles

Browse all company salary pages →

Explore more salary data

All Sales salaries →  ·  Browse all tech salaries →

Common questions

What does Chainguard pay?
The median pay is $171K, with a typical range of $152K–$218K, based on 39 public job postings (2025–2026). Base only — equity is separate.

What is the highest-paying job at Chainguard?
One of the highest-paying open roles is Public Sector Account Executive - Civilian, at $350K base.

Which team pays the most at Chainguard?
The sales team, at a $325K median.

Where does this data come from?
Public job postings on company career pages and public job boards — no private placement or client data.

Methodology

Posted-range midpoints (USD) aggregated from 39 public Chainguard job postings (2025–2026). Range = 25th–75th percentile; median = 50th percentile. Roles, departments, skills, and experience are parsed from the postings. Base salary only — equity excluded. Last refreshed October 21, 2026.

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