Senior International People Business Partner, Chainguard
£104-141k
+ Stock Options
More information about location
Software supply chain security
Be an early applicant
Software supply chain security
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
£104-141k
+ Stock Options
More information about location
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To make the software supply chain secure by default.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years as a People Business Partner or equivalent is a must, with real, hands-on exposure to multi-country EMEA employee populations — not just policy knowledge
- Working fluency in employment law across key EMEA markets (UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Netherlands), including works councils and statutory employee representation, is a must
- Experience owning employee relations and investigations independently — without a dedicated ER team to lean on — is a must
- Background in a startup or high-growth technical company is a must; this role assumes ambiguity and building process from scratch
- Based in the UK is a strong plus — most of the EMEA team sits there, and it's the anchor market
- Experience working with an EOR (e.g., Remote) is a strong plus
- Comfort operating with real autonomy across time zones, with senior enough judgment to make calls independently, is a must
- Strong consulting, coaching, and facilitation skills, and the ability to build trust quickly with senior stakeholders, is a must
- Willingness to travel across the region as needed
What the job involves
- As Chainguard scales across EMEA, we need someone to own the region the way our People team already owns the US — deeply, locally, and without a net
- This is a newly created seat: you'll be the first People Business Partner based in EMEA, standing up the function as we open entities in the UK (live now) and Germany (coming soon)
- You'll partner closely with regional leaders — starting with our GVP of Sales and engineering leadership — on everything from performance and employee relations to compliance across a fast-growing, multi-country footprint
- Today, Remote (our EOR partner) is the bridge for EMEA employee matters; as we stand up local entities, you'll take direct ownership of that work, including full-cycle employee relations and investigations, since we don't yet have a dedicated ER function
- This is a builder's role — you'll shape how the People function works in the region as much as execute it
- Serve as the primary People partner to EMEA leaders, starting with our GVP of Sales and engineering leadership, coaching them through performance, org, and talent decisions
- Own end-to-end employee relations across the region, including sensitive or cross-border cases and formal investigations — there is no separate ER team, so this sits with you
- Lead performance management cycles (quarterly and annual) across multiple EMEA markets, adapting process to local norms while keeping a consistent bar
- Partner with our Compensation Manager on region-specific comp benchmarking and guidance through hiring, promotion, and annual review cycles
- Guide managers through country-specific employment requirements, including works councils, statutory notice periods, collective bargaining, and GDPR — partnering with Legal and outside counsel on jurisdiction-specific risk (redundancy, TUPE, co-determination)
- Work closely with our People Ops lead (based in Poland) on onboarding and operational execution, and with our L&D team on leadership development and culture programming for the region
- Stand up local-market infrastructure as we open new entities, starting with the UK and expanding to Germany
- Use people data and analytics to surface trends by country and market, and turn that into recommendations leadership can act on
- Support the wider EMEA footprint (UK, Ireland, and other EU markets, plus India), coordinating with the US-based People team on any APAC-adjacent needs
Our take
Developers rely on open source code and apps in their day to day work, but when the provenance of the code is unknown this creates potential weaknesses that cybercriminals can exploit. Chainguard exists to build security into the coding supply chain by making it possible for companies to enforce security policies based on auditable signatures baked into the code.
In the wake of huge cyber attacks, software supply chain security has been an area of major focus. However, most of this has surrounded the scanning and detection of threats. Chainguard's approach comes from the other end of the process, focusing on building security into the software itself.
Built by former engineers who are aware of developer workloads, Chainguard is designed to be easily installed and integrated into existing automation systems. The company has secured substantial funding, the latest of which will support more aggressive product and R&D spending as it looks to further boost sales.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
55% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Oct 2025
$280m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Apr 2025
$356m
SERIES D
Total funding: $892m
Company benefits
- Equity/stock options
- Unlimited PTO
- Remote work with flexible coworking and team meetup opportunities
- Home office and internet stipend
- 100% health/dental/vision insurance coverage for you and your family
Company HQ
Everest, Kirkland, WA
Leadership
Dan Lorenc
(CEO & Co-Founder)Before co-founding Chainguard was a Software Engineer at Google, Disqus and Microsoft.
Kim Lewandowski
(CSO & Co-Founder)Prior to co-founding Chainguard was a Product Manager with Google. Before that was the Head of Product & Engineering at Brit + Co and the founder of Spotwag.
Matthew Moore
(CTO & Co-Founder)Was a Software Engineer at VMware, Google and Microsoft.
Ville Aikas
(Distinguished Engineer & Co-founder)Was a Senior Staff Engineer at VMware and a Software Engineer for Google and the University of Washingtom. Was previously Owner at VA Systems.
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