Opportunity

Enterprise AE at Chainguard - Cybersecurity Sales Career in Columbus

Location Columbus
Company Chainguard
Source jobicy
Posted 2026-08-29 10:58:36

Career & Market Insight

This Enterprise Account Executive role at Chainguard sits at an exciting intersection of supply chain security, open source, and DevOps tooling — one of the fastest-growing segments in cybersecurity. Winning deals with names like OpenAI, Snowflake, and Anduril is strong social proof and a résumé differentiator.

Compensation context: No salary is listed, but enterprise AE roles in the cybersecurity/DevOps SaaS space in EMEA markets typically range from €100,000–€160,000 OTE (base + commission), with equity on top. Chainguard's Series C+ funding and blue-chip VC backing (Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins) suggest competitive packages and meaningful stock upside.

Skills you'll develop:

  • Enterprise SaaS sales into security-conscious Fortune 500 buyers — highly transferable
  • Technical fluency in Kubernetes, container security, and CI/CD supply chain concepts
  • Navigating complex multi-stakeholder deals (DevOps + Security + Procurement)

Green flags: Remote-first culture, 10-year stock option exercise window (extremely rare and founder-friendly), 100% covered health insurance for dependents, and 18-week parental leave all signal a mature, employee-oriented benefits philosophy unusual for a growth-stage startup.

Watch for: No defined territory boundaries are stated — clarify geographic scope and quota structure during interviews, as enterprise sales in Nordic/EMEA markets can be geographically sprawling. The entrepreneurial culture expectation also signals this is not a structured, process-heavy enterprise — autonomy is rewarded, but so is resilience.

Chainguard is the trusted source for open source. By delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers and AI agents rely on, Chainguard helps organizations build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk.

Our customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake.

Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.

The Role, in a Nutshell:

We're looking for highly motivated sales executives who have strong market knowledge and enjoy building relationships with key decision makers to evangelize building secure and reliable software. Our sales team walks a mile in their customers' shoes and wants our customers and prospects to see the immense value and expertise Chainguard's solutions offer.

Skills / Job Requirements:

  • Define and execute sales plans for your assigned territory
  • Convey value prop and product differentiators to prospects and customers
  • Forecast, meet, and exceed quota
  • Through a combination of inbound and outbound leads, develop and manage leads funnel
  • Manage business and track opportunities through CRM and other supporting tools
  • Collaborate on and improve all aspects of the sales cycle, including product, support, and sales engineering
  • Understand the competitive market, being familiar with competing companies and their offerings

Candidate Background:

  • 5+ years of Enterprise Sales Experience
  • Domain experience with one or more of the following required: Compute platforms (Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), DevOps Tooling, CI/CD platforms (GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins) and overall SDLC
  • Strong track record consistently overachieving sales targets
  • Ability to learn new products and processes quickly
  • Competitive and driven
  • Excellent communication skills, verbal and written
  • Team player
  • Must be willing to travel to clients to support sales relationships (if required)
  • Entrepreneurial – willing to go the extra mile, strong work ethic, resourceful

Desired Qualifications:

  • SaaS or Developer tools sales experience
  • Startup experience
  • A strong sales aptitude and fundamental understanding of the sales process
  • A sound, tech-savvy business acumen and the ability to articulate a compelling value proposition in a complex and evolving business environment
  • Ability to thrive in an agile environment with an ever-evolving set of solutions

About Us

We live and breathe our company values:

  • We are customer obsessed — We focus on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better.
  • We have a bias for intentional action — We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast.
  • We don't take ourselves too seriously (but we do serious work) — We are solving an important problem which takes focus, but we also like to enjoy the journey.
  • We trust each other and assume good intentions — We're transparent with decisions to empower team members to make well-informed decisions.

A few of the benefits we offer:

  • 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.
  • Unlimited 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.

If your experience is close but doesn't fulfill all requirements, please apply. We're building the best team in technology and are focused on hiring "Chainguardians" with unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.

Chainguard is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Chainguard will process your personal data in accordance with Chainguard's Global Candidate Privacy Notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this role fully remote or is office attendance required?
The role is remote-first with no office requirement. Chainguard offers coworking space stipends and hosts bi-annual destination summits for team connection. However, travel to clients may be required to support enterprise sales relationships.
What technical background is required for this sales role?
Candidates need domain experience in at least one of: compute platforms (Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, Azure, GCP), DevOps tooling, or CI/CD platforms (GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins). Prior SaaS or developer tools sales experience is a strong plus.
What does the equity package look like at Chainguard?
Employees receive stock options upon hire and promotion, can participate in secondary offerings, and have a 10-year window to exercise their options — a notably generous term compared to the industry-standard 90-day post-termination window.
How much experience is needed to apply for this position?
The role requires 5+ years of enterprise sales experience with a consistent track record of overachieving targets. The posting encourages candidates whose experience is close but doesn't meet every requirement to apply anyway.
What territory would this Enterprise Account Executive cover?
The job posting does not explicitly define the territory, but the Denmark location hint suggests a Nordic or EMEA territory. Candidates should clarify the exact geographic scope and quota during the interview process.
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