Principal, Product Manager

About the role

This Principal Product Manager role is a high-leverage Individual Contributor position responsible for the complete product strategy and execution for Apache Flink across Confluent Cloud and Platform. This is an ambiguous and technical domain that requires a seasoned leader who can build durable platform capabilities, translate complex systems into clear strategy, and operate independently.

What You Will Do

• Define and drive the multi-year product strategy and roadmap for Apache Flink across cloud and on-prem products.
• Establish structured processes to align product, engineering, GTM, and executive stakeholders.
• Identify high-leverage, 0-to-1 product opportunities for Flink and in adjacent areas like AI, data engineering, data warehousing, and event-driven applications.
• Define how Confluent Flink offerings will work across Confluent and IBM product portfolio.

What You Will Bring

• Proven ability to own and deliver product strategy for complex cloud data products for customers ranging from data engineers to software developers.
• Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, data engineering, and cloud.
• Domain expertise in streaming technologies such as Kafka, Flink, or Spark is a plus but not required.
• Experience leading product development across the entire lifecycle, scaling businesses from early product-market fit to substantial revenue.
• 10+ years of experience in product management for a technical software or cloud service product.

What Gives You An Edge

• Hands-on engineering or technical background, including comfort with systems design, API design, and several languages (e.g., Python, Java, Scala, SQL, etc.).
• Experience with open-source software and determining commercialization strategy while building the community.
• Track record in data infrastructure, analytics, AI/ML platforms, real-time systems, or streaming systems, especially where the product serves customers with a diversity of technical depth.

Compensation Range

$273.3K - $328K