Sr Director, Product Mgmt

About the role

Lead the vision, strategy, and execution of products at the intersection of enterprise AI, cloud-scale data infrastructure, and open-source ecosystems. This role is responsible for building differentiated, trustworthy, and scalable platforms that enable customers to manage, govern, and operationalize data for modern analytics and AI workloads across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. As a senior product leader, you will manage and develop a team of product managers while partnering closely with engineering, open-source program offices, research, go-to-market, and strategic partners. Balance long-term platform strategy with near-term business impact, ensuring investments in open-source technologies and AI capabilities translate into customer value, ecosystem adoption, and revenue growth.

Responsibilities

• Product Strategy & Vision
  • Define and own the product strategy and multi-year roadmap for AI-enabled data platforms, with a strong emphasis on open-source data infrastructure (e.g., distributed storage, data orchestration, streaming, search, and metadata systems).
  • Identify and articulate how NetApp-grade enterprise capabilities—security, governance, performance, reliability—differentiate open-source-based solutions in production AI and analytics environments.
  • Align product strategy with company objectives, market trends, and customer transformation initiatives across data modernization and AI adoption.
• AI & Platform Leadership
  • Drive the integration of generative AI and agentic capabilities into data infrastructure products, enabling use cases such as intelligent data management, autonomous operations, and AI-assisted user experiences.
  • Partner with engineering and architecture leaders to shape platform capabilities including:
    • Data ingestion and pipelines for AI workloads
    • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures
    • Model orchestration, evaluation, and observability
    • Policy-driven governance, data lineage, and compliance
  • Ensure products are designed for operational excellence at enterprise scale, balancing innovation speed with robustness and trust.
• Open-Source & Ecosystem Engagement
  • Define NetApp’s open-source data infrastructure product strategy, including decisions around build vs. partner vs. community collaboration.
  • Work closely with open-source communities, foundations, and partners to influence roadmaps while maintaining healthy upstream engagement.
  • Establish clear product and business models around open-source software, including subscriptions, managed services, and enterprise extensions.
• Execution & Go-to-Market
  • Lead end-to-end product execution across multiple teams, ensuring clarity on priorities, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
  • Partner with sales, marketing, and alliances to define positioning, packaging, pricing, and launch strategies for AI and data platform offerings.
  • Engage directly with strategic customers, field teams, and partners to validate direction, gather feedback, and accelerate adoption.
• People Leadership & Product Excellence
  • Build, manage, and mentor a high-performing team of product managers across platform, AI, and open-source domains.
  • Set a high bar for product craftsmanship, including customer discovery, roadmap rigor, outcome-based metrics, and clear product narratives.
  • Foster a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and accountability within the product organization.

Requirements

• 15–20 years of experience in product management, with 5+ years in people leadership roles, preferably in enterprise software, cloud platforms, or data infrastructure.
• Strong track record of delivering platform-scale products used by developers, data engineers, and enterprise customers.
• Hands-on experience with AI-enabled products, including familiarity with:
  • Generative AI and LLM-based systems
  • Agentic workflows and autonomous services
  • AI evaluation, governance, and lifecycle management
• Deep understanding of open-source data technologies and ecosystems, and experience commercializing or productizing open-source software.
• Proven ability to influence and align senior stakeholders across engineering, GTM, executives, and external partners.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business and customer value.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or Information Systems.
• MBA or master’s degree strongly preferred.

Pay

The target salary range for this position is $266,000–$365,000. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Retirement or pension plans
• Paid time off and various leave options
• Performance-based incentives
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Restricted stocks (RSUs)

Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

Schedule

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