Principal Product Manager

About the role

NetApp is hiring a principal-level product manager to own the AI product strategy for Azure NetApp Files (ANF)—a first-party, fully managed enterprise file service on Microsoft Azure, delivered in deep partnership between NetApp and Microsoft.

Responsibilities

• Define a multi-year AI vision and roadmap for ANF in the context of Azure AI services, GPU estates, data platforms, and regulated enterprise environments.
• Prioritize investments across performance, scale, data services, protocol and API surfaces, and operational excellence for AI pipelines.
• Drive requirements for AI-centric scenarios, including:
• Training and inference data planes (high throughput, low latency, checkpointing, bursty I/O)
• RAG and enterprise search (datasets, versioning, clones, refresh patterns)
• Agentic workflows and orchestration (durable shared state, tool/data access patterns—where productized responsibly)
• Large multimodal and enterprise datasets (governance, access control, lifecycle)
• Analytics and simulation adjacencies (HPC/EDA-style throughput, shared filesystem semantics)
• Partner with Microsoft teams across Azure AI / Foundry, Azure Machine Learning, AKS/container platforms, GPU infrastructure, data/analytics (e.g., Databricks-style patterns on Azure), and core Azure storage/networking dependencies.
• Align ANF’s AI story with Azure-wide AI data guidance and reference architectures, and feed real customer workload evidence back into joint planning.
• Lead across engineering, product marketing, sales, customer success, and professional services to ship capabilities and repeatable reference architectures / proof points.
• Engage strategic customers and design partners to validate pain, quantify value, and de-risk roadmap bets.
• Monitor AI infrastructure trends (models, frameworks, orchestration, data formats) and competitor moves; translate these into differentiated bets.
• Represent ANF as a credible technical executive in briefings, advisory councils, and industry forums.
• Tailor AI storage strategy for segments where file semantics and performance matter, for example: semiconductor/EDA, manufacturing, healthcare imaging, financial services, energy, media & entertainment, and HPC/simulation—including compliance and data residency requirements.

Requirements

• 10+ years of product management experience in cloud infrastructure, enterprise storage, AI/ML infrastructure, or data platforms (principal scope: portfolio strategy, multi-team alignment, executive storytelling).
• Strong command of enterprise storage: NFS/SMB semantics, snapshots/clones, replication, backup integration patterns, capacity/performance tiers, and large-scale filesystem behavior under parallel workloads.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern AI stacks: LLMs, RAG architectures, embeddings/vector retrieval patterns, training vs. inference I/O profiles, orchestration, and enterprise AI data pipelines.
• Demonstrated success influencing engineering and partner roadmaps without direct authority; experience with hyperscaler first-party or deeply partnered services is a strong plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for customers, executives, and engineers.

Preferred

• Direct experience with Microsoft Azure AI services, GPU estates on Azure, and/or Azure Kubernetes Service + ML platform integrations.
• Familiarity with Databricks, Iceberg/Delta-class open table patterns, Kubernetes storage patterns, NVIDIA AI software stacks, and enterprise MLOps release cadences.
• Background in regulated industries and enterprise security/governance requirements for AI data.

Education

MBA or advanced degree in CS/Engineering (helpful, not a substitute for demonstrated technical depth).

Benefits

The target salary range for this position is $228,000 - $345,000. 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.

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.