Director, AFF Systems & Engineered Platforms

NetApp; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 228,000 - 339,000; Full time

Job summary

NetApp seeks a Director of Product Management to own the AFF portfolio and the next‑gen engineered systems that will carry it forward. This is a people‑leader role with end‑to‑end ownership of strategy, roadmap, lifecycle, competitive positioning, and business outcomes for a core part of NetApp’s Enterprise Storage business.

The role combines strategic leadership with operational accountability. The director works at the intersection of systems hardware, ONTAP data services, and go‑to‑market

Qualifications

• 12+ years of product management or technical product planning in enterprise infrastructure, storage, or related hardware/software domains.
• 5+ years leading product managers or equivalent people leadership of a technical product team.
• Proven ownership of a high-revenue hardware and/or systems product line, including roadmap, new product introduction, lifecycle, and business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of enterprise storage architectures, including all-flash systems, file and block protocols, and modern data-center infrastructure.
• Experience partnering with engineering on next generation system definition, including architectures shared across more than one product line.
• Experience driving cross-functional execution across engineering, supply chain, operations, finance, and go-to-market.
• Executive presence and the ability to represent complex platform and business tradeoffs to senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and coach a team of product managers responsible for AFF systems and next generation platform programs.
• Set team priorities, operating cadence, and delivery standards; serve as the point of accountability for the AFF franchise.
• Represent the portfolio to senior leadership; communicate strategy, tradeoffs, and business performance clearly.
• Own product strategy for NetApp’s AFF systems, including how those offerings are positioned relative to one another and to the broader portfolio.
• Define and drive next generation strategy for engineered systems with shared architectures used across multiple product lines.
• Develop and maintain multi-generation roadmaps with clear prioritization across performance and capacity tiers, form factors, and technology transitions.
• Track business metrics such as adoption, mix, capacity growth, and economics, and translate them into roadmap, pricing, and go-to-market actions.
• Drive concurrent new-product programs across shipping systems and next generation architectures, from requirements through qualification, GA, sustaining, and end of life.
• Ensure product requirements for engineering, operations, and planning are clear, prioritized, and aligned to launch commitments.
• Own lifecycle discipline across the portfolio—generation transitions, configuration optimization, and sustaining strategy.
• Synthesize requirements from enterprise customers, the field, and partners into platform priorities and design decisions.
• Own competitive positioning for the portfolio; convert gaps into requirements and actions that improve win rates.
• Connect platform investments to customer outcomes and business impact through clear business cases and prescriptive positioning.
• Partner with product marketing and the field on messaging, positioning guidance, and enablement so the portfolio is simple to sell and deploy.
• Be the point of accountability across engineering, supply chain, operations, finance, marketing, and sales for the AFF systems portfolio.
• Influence architecture and system-level decisions that span multiple product lines and generations.

Skills

Product management

Team leadership

Strategic thinking

Cross‑functional collaboration

Executive communication

Job description

NetApp seeks a Director of Product Management to own the AFF portfolio and the next‑gen engineered systems that will carry it forward. This is a people‑leader role with end‑to‑end ownership of strategy, roadmap, lifecycle, competitive positioning, and business outcomes for a core part of NetApp’s Enterprise Storage business.

The role combines strategic leadership with operational accountability. The director works at the intersection of systems hardware, ONTAP data services, and go‑to‑market