Staff Software Engineer (Java Libraries)

Chainguard is a company focused on providing secure open source software for development and deployment. They are seeking a Staff Software Engineer for their Java Libraries organization, responsible for building infrastructure and tooling to support Java libraries, enhancing build processes, and ensuring security and reliability in software delivery.

Responsibilities:

• Own architecture and direction for Java ecosystem infrastructure, enabling secure, reproducible build, test, and distribution workflows for Java libraries and SDKs
• Design and maintain automation for building, updating, validating, and publishing Java artifacts, including vulnerability scanning, remediation, SBOMs, and provenance
• Build internal developer tools (Gradle/Maven plugins, CLIs, code generators) that improve how we build and maintain Java packages at scale
• Integrate deeply with Gradle and Maven and artifact repositories, solving complex dependency and module-resolution issues in large codebases and mono-repos
• Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to shape the Java libraries roadmap and deliver on key business outcomes for Chainguard Libraries
• Mentor and unblock other engineers through design reviews, documentation, and hands-on debugging of build and infrastructure issues
• Partner with Platform, Delivery, Sustaining, and Security to ensure Java pipelines and services meet reliability and security expectations

Requirements:

• 8+ years working in Java or similar ecosystems on build systems, packaging, or developer tooling, ideally on platform/infra or ecosystem teams
• Proven experience building and owning Gradle/Maven plugins, CI/CD automation, or internal frameworks/tools for Java libraries or services
• Deep familiarity with Gradle and Maven for building and packaging libraries (multi-module builds, dependency graphs/BOMs, publishing to registries)
• Strong background in orchestrating large codebases or mono-repos and fixing dependency and build failures in production environments
• Comfortable working with infrastructure code and tooling (e.g., Go-based systems, Terraform, CI/CD), alongside deep Java expertise
• Demonstrated ability to debug toolchain, compiler, and packaging issues at scale and drive them to resolution
• Experience with cloud-native environments: containers (Docker/OCI, Kubernetes), public cloud (GCP, AWS, or Azure), and modern CI/CD systems (e.g., GitHub Actions, Argo, Tekton, or similar)
• Excellent communication in a remote, distributed setup. Comfortable working across product, infra, and security, and mentoring peers at senior levels
• A staff-level ownership mindset: you define direction, own critical outcomes, and thrive in an early, high-impact area where engineers help set the roadmap
• Open source contributions in the Java ecosystem (libraries, build tools, packaging, or related infrastructure)
• Experience building and distributing widely used libraries, SDKs, or runtimes
• Familiarity with software supply chain security: SLSA, SBOMs, sigstore, provenance, attestations
• Prior work in SRE, platform engineering, or DevOps roles tied to Java, developer productivity, or CI/CD pipelines
• Exposure to Linux distribution and packaging ecosystems or reproducible build systems (e.g., Alpine, Wolfi, Debian, Bazel, Nix)