Staff Product Manager (Cloud Networking)

• Confluent’s Cloud Networking team is responsible for making connectivity to and from Confluent Cloud reliable, scalable, secure, cost-efficient, and simple to use — across Kafka, Flink, Connectors, Data Governance, and Tableflow, on AWS, Azure, and GCP
• As Staff PM for Cloud Networking, you will own the platform strategy for how enterprises connect to Confluent Cloud. This is not a feature-level role — you will define the architecture of our networking product surface across all clouds and connection models, set the multi-year roadmap, and operate as a co-decision-maker alongside engineering leadership on the technical direction of the platform.
• You will work across all networking connection types — PrivateLink, VNet peering, Transit Gateway, Private Service Connect, and egress optimization — and drive alignment across engineering, field, and executive stakeholders on what we build and why
• Own the platform strategy for Confluent Cloud Networking across AWS, Azure, and GCP — defining the north star, multi-year roadmap, and sequencing of bets that balance customer connectivity needs, cost efficiency, security posture, and engineering leverage
• Define frameworks and standards that other PMs, designers, and engineers use to evaluate networking decisions — connection model selection criteria, cost attribution models, 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-generation isolation models) and build the business case for them
• Develop the product team — mentor Senior PMs on the team, provide feedback on product documents and roadmap thinking, and raise the bar on how the team approaches 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 — develop the business case, communicate trade-offs clearly, and earn commitment for multi-year platform bets
• 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

Preferred experience

• Practices AI-native product management — uses AI tools as a genuine thought partner throughout the product lifecycle (research, prioritization, spec writing, analytics), with sound judgment on when to use, override, and validate AI output; and brings that same mindset to product design, building features and APIs that are composable, observable, and easy for AI agents and automation to consume
• 8+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years owning a cloud infrastructure, platform, or networking product
• Demonstrated track record of setting product strategy and roadmap at platform or portfolio scope — not just feature-level delivery
• Strong analytical foundation: can model unit economics, build business cases with cost/risk sensitivity, and measure platform health through leading and lagging indicators
• Experience developing PMs and raising the bar on product thinking — through direct mentorship, feedback, or team processes
• 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
• Experience with Envoy, Service Mesh, DNS and Kubernetes Networking
• Familiarity with Terraform, API-first and infrastructure-as-code workflows, and how enterprise engineering teams operate networking automation
• Experience operating in a product-led growth or usage-based pricing environment
• An MBA degree is a plus
• Exposure to network traffic metering, data transfer billing attribution, cost transparency tooling, or pricing and packaging strategy for cloud infrastructure products — defining packaging tiers, price points, and commercial model for enterprise buyers
• At the Staff level, we expect more than excellent execution on a defined scope. We’re looking for someone who:
• Defines the playing field — identifies problems the team isn’t yet working on and builds conviction for why they should be
• Multiplies others — makes the PMs and engineers around them better through frameworks, feedback, and the way they structure problems
• Operates without a ceiling — can go from a whiteboard architecture discussion to a customer negotiation to an executive strategy review, and adds value in all of them
• Takes a position — has a clear point of view on where cloud networking is going and can defend it under scrutiny, while remaining open to updating when given new information