Sr. Product Manager

NetApp; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 196,000 - 293,000; Full time

Job summary

Instaclustr, part of NetApp, is expanding into data infrastructure for AI applications and agents. We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to define and deliver that product: the streaming, retrieval, memory and data-access capabilities that AI developers need, built on open-source engines and running in any cloud or on-premises.

You will own the product strategy and roadmap for AI workloads across the Instaclustr platform, working closely with engineering, product marketing, sales and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of product management experience, including developer-facing products or data infrastructure such as databases, streaming, search or cloud platforms.
• Hands-on understanding of how AI applications use data: RAG, vector and hybrid search, embeddings, agent frameworks and memory, and emerging agent protocols such as MCP.
• Shipping technical products from discovery to launch with measurable adoption.
• Ability to go deep with engineers and explain simply to executives; strong writing skills with working‑backwards or PRDs.
• Experience aligning multiple teams on priorities in demanding stakeholder environments, including across organizational boundaries.
• Strong business judgment, including pricing, packaging and the economics of a managed service.

Responsibilities

• Understand the problem. Lead customer discovery with AI developers, platform engineers and data teams.
• Own the vision and roadmap. Set the product strategy for AI workloads across the platform.
• Define and ship cross‑service capabilities with engineering from discovery to launch.
• Build with NetApp. Deliver integrated solutions for NetApp customers across infrastructures.
• Learn from early customers; run design‑partner and early‑access programs.
• Partner with product marketing and sales for positioning, plays and launches.
• Measure adoption, usage and revenue; report progress and adjust course.
• Make principled calls for AI‑segment priorities across teams.

Skills

Product management

AI data usage

RAG/embeddings

Engineering collaboration

Cross-team alignment

Pricing/packaging

Education

Bachelors degree

Masters preferred

Job description

Job Summary

Instaclustr, part of NetApp, is expanding into data infrastructure for AI applications and agents. We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to define and deliver that product: the streaming, retrieval, memory and data-access capabilities that AI developers need, built on open-source engines and running in any cloud or on-premises.

You will own the product strategy and roadmap for AI workloads across the Instaclustr platform, working closely with engineering, product marketing, sales and NetApp's AI and storage teams. This is a hands‑on role for someone who understands how AI applications use data and can turn that understanding into products developers adopt.

About Instaclustr

As part of NetApp, Instaclustr helps companies run open-source technologies such as Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, OpenSearch and Cadence at scale and with confidence. Our platform handles everything from provisioning to production reliability, so customers can focus on building great applications. By combining proven platform-based delivery, open-source innovation, and NetApp's enterprise storage and data services, we are positioned to lead in hyperscaler‑agnostic data infrastructure for agentic AI.

Responsibilities

• Understand the problem. Lead customer discovery with AI developers, platform engineers and data teams. Learn how RAG, agentic and real‑time AI applications use streaming, search, databases and memory, and where they struggle. Size and prioritize the opportunities.

• Own the vision and roadmap. Set the product strategy for AI workloads across the platform. Write working‑backwards documents that align product, engineering, go‑to‑market and executives around a clear value proposition.

• Define and ship cross‑service capabilities. Examples include governed data access for AI agents, AI solution blueprints and reference architectures, open data formats, and integrations with AI frameworks and model providers. Write requirements, make trade‑offs, and work with engineering from discovery to launch.

• Build with NetApp. Partner with NetApp's AI, storage and data services teams to deliver integrated solutions for NetApp customers, while keeping the platform open and usable on any infrastructure.

• Learn from early customers. Run design‑partner and early‑access programs, and turn what you learn into roadmap decisions.

• Partner with product marketing and sales. Bring product and market expertise to positioning, sales plays, enablement and launches. Join strategic customer conversations and represent the product at conferences and in open-source communities.

• Measure what matters. Define adoption, usage and revenue metrics for AI workloads, report progress, and adjust course.

• Make the hard calls. Act as the decision and escalation point for AI‑segment priorities, whether for a strategic customer or a cross‑team trade‑off, and explain the reasoning clearly.

Job Requirements

• 8+ years of product management experience, including developer-facing products or data infrastructure such as databases, streaming, search or cloud platforms.

• Hands‑on understanding of how AI applications use data: RAG, vector and hybrid search, embeddings, agent frameworks and memory, and emerging agent protocols such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

• A track record of shipping technical products from discovery to launch, with measurable adoption.

• Ability to go deep with engineers and explain simply to executives and customers; strong writing skills, including working‑backwards or product requirements documents.

• Experience aligning multiple teams on priorities in demanding stakeholder environments, including across organizational boundaries.

• Strong business judgment, including pricing, packaging and the economics of a managed service.

Nice to Have

• Experience with the technologies Instaclustr offers (Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Cadence) or other open-source data projects and communities.

• Experience with managed cloud services, customer-cloud (BYOC) or multicloud deployment, and cloud marketplaces.

• Familiarity with enterprise storage and data management, or with data governance and security for AI.

• Experience with open table formats such as Apache Iceberg, or lakehouse architectures.

• Experience building AI applications yourself, even as prototypes.

Education

• Bachelors Degree Required, Masters or higher is preferred.

Compensation

The target salary range for this position is 196,350 - 292,600 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

We are all about helping customers turn challenges into business opportunity. It starts with bringing new thinking to age-old problems, like how to use data most effectively to run better - but also to innovate. We tailor our approach to the customer's unique needs with a combination of fresh thinking and proven approaches.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision‑making.