European Government Affairs & Public Policy Leader

Chainguard is the trusted source for open source, delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds for organizations like Fortune 500 enterprises, OpenAI, and Snowflake. With a strong and growing UK and European customer base, Chainguard is prioritizing Europe as a key growth area.

What You’ll Do

This role focuses on shaping Chainguard’s European policy strategy, establishing the company as a trusted technical voice in cyber regulation across the continent and the UK. You’ll translate fast-moving policy into actionable insights for positioning, product development, and customer engagement.

• Set and own Chainguard’s European policy strategy, including priorities, positions, target institutions, and narrative framing.
• Engage with governments, regulators, and standards bodies such as the European Commission (DG CNECT, DG GROW), European Parliament, ENISA, and technical standards bodies like CEN-CENELEC and ETSI.
• Decide on industry coalition participation (e.g., DigitalEurope, CCIA Europe, BSA, techUK) and represent Chainguard in relevant bodies.
• Forecast emerging policy trends and developments relevant to Chainguard, leveraging political acumen to anticipate shifts.
• Develop policy positions, consultation responses, and written submissions, while speaking authoritatively on Chainguard’s behalf in public and industry forums.
• Translate technical concepts into policy language and vice versa, ensuring alignment between regulatory requirements and product roadmaps.
• Support product, marketing, and revenue teams with policy credibility and positioning, while maintaining a clear focus on policy objectives.
• Build a sustainable European government affairs function by establishing processes, relationships, and intelligence flows.
• Help chart the path toward leading a growing team as Chainguard expands in the region.

Who You Are

• At least 8+ years of experience in government affairs or public policy, gained within public sector organizations, regulatory bodies, or private companies with comparable functions.
• A track record of building or growing government affairs programs or shepherding regulations, standards, or policy strategies to completion.
• Experience engaging with senior officials, demonstrating the ability to represent Chainguard credibly at high levels.
• Proven ability to translate complex technical subject matter for policy audiences, with clear examples of how you do this.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity with minimal guidance, adopting a scrappy and resourceful approach to maximize impact.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of engaging effectively with executives, engineers, and government stakeholders.
• A degree or equivalent experience in the field.
• Based in Europe and able to travel frequently across the region.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with a multi-country portfolio in policy work or government affairs across several European jurisdictions.
• Fluency in one or more European languages in addition to English.
• Experience in both public and private sector government affairs.
• Familiarity with ENISA, CEN-CENELEC, ETSI, and major cybersecurity drivers in regulatory and standardization bodies.
• Knowledge of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) conformity assessment framework, including risk classes and notified bodies, as well as EU/UK lobbying transparency registers.
• Experience representing a company through industry coalitions or trade associations.
• Fluency in software supply chain security, cybersecurity, or AI subject matter.
• Experience at a high-growth company.