Staff PM: Cloud Networking Platform & Strategy

Confluent Inc; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Confluent is seeking a Staff Product Manager for Cloud Networking to own the platform strategy across AWS, Azure, and GCP, defining the multi-year roadmap and coordinating with engineering leadership on architectural direction. You will shape the networking surface, enable cost efficiency, security posture, and scalable connectivity for enterprise customers.

You will mentor PMs, drive cross-functional alignment, and present the platform vision to executives to secure multi-year investment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years owning a cloud infrastructure, platform, or networking product.
• Proven track record of setting product strategy and roadmap at platform or portfolio scope — not just feature-level delivery.
• Deep fluency in cloud networking concepts: PrivateLink, VNet peering, Transit Gateway, Private Service Connect, DNS, security groups, CIDR/IP management, and their trade-offs across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Experience owning products that serve enterprise customers with complex compliance, security, and connectivity requirements.
• Proven ability to partner with engineering leadership as a co-decision-maker on architectural direction — not just translating engineering output.
• Strong analytical foundation: model unit economics, build business cases with cost/risk sensitivity, and measure platform health through leading and lagging indicators.
• Practices AI-native product management — uses AI tools as a genuine thought partner throughout the product lifecycle, with sound judgment on when to use AI output, and builds features and APIs that are composable and observable for AI agents.

Responsibilities

• Own the platform strategy for Confluent Cloud Networking across AWS, Azure, and GCP — defining the north star, multi-year roadmap, and sequencing of bets.
• Define frameworks and standards for evaluating networking decisions — connection model selection criteria, cost attribution, security control frameworks, and launch readiness standards.
• Drive architectural decisions in partnership with engineering leadership — weighing trade-offs between user experience, cost, and operational complexity.
• Expand scope and create optionality — identify adjacencies the team should move into (network observability, cost transparency tooling, next-gen isolation models) and build the business case.
• Develop the product team — mentor Senior PMs on the team, provide feedback on product documents and roadmap thinking, and raise the bar on customer research and decision-making.
• Build senior stakeholder alignment across product, engineering, sales, field, legal, and security, then present the platform vision to executive leadership to secure organizational investment.
• Define and own success metrics at the platform level — connecting technical milestones to business outcomes including revenue, retention, attach rates, and infrastructure cost efficiency.
• Engage directly with strategic customers and prospects — represent the product roadmap with credibility in technical conversations with enterprise CTOs, architects, and network engineers.

Skills

Product management leadership

Cloud networking

Enterprise experience

AI-native PM

Mentoring PMs

Education

MBA preferred

Tools

Envoy

Terraform

Kubernetes Networking

Job description

Confluent is seeking a Staff Product Manager for Cloud Networking to own the platform strategy across AWS, Azure, and GCP, defining the multi-year roadmap and coordinating with engineering leadership on architectural direction. You will shape the networking surface, enable cost efficiency, security posture, and scalable connectivity for enterprise customers.

You will mentor PMs, drive cross-functional alignment, and present the platform vision to executives to secure multi-year investment.