Staff Product Manager, Cloud Networking

Details

Confluent's Cloud Networking team makes 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 Product Manager for Cloud Networking, you will own the platform strategy for how enterprises connect to Confluent Cloud. You will define the architecture of the networking product surface across clouds and connection models, set the multi-year roadmap, and partner with engineering leadership on the technical direction of the platform. The role covers PrivateLink, VNet peering, Transit Gateway, Private Service Connect, and egress optimization.

Responsibilities

• Own the platform strategy for Confluent Cloud Networking across AWS, Azure, and GCP, including the north star, multi-year roadmap, and sequencing of initiatives.
• Balance customer connectivity needs, cost efficiency, security posture, and engineering leverage.
• Define frameworks and standards for connection model selection, cost attribution, security controls, and launch readiness.
• Drive architectural decisions with engineering leadership, weighing user experience, cost, and operational complexity.
• Identify adjacent opportunities such as network observability, cost transparency tooling, and next-generation isolation models.
• Develop business cases for new platform investments.
• Mentor Senior Product Managers and improve product documentation, roadmap thinking, customer research, and decision-making practices.
• Build alignment across product, engineering, sales, field, legal, and security stakeholders.
• Present the platform vision to executive leadership and secure investment for multi-year platform initiatives.
• Define platform-level success metrics tied to revenue, retention, attach rates, and infrastructure cost efficiency.
• Engage directly with strategic customers and prospects, including enterprise CTOs, architects, and network engineers.

Requirements

• 8 or more years of product management experience, including at least 3 years owning a cloud infrastructure, platform, or networking product.
• Demonstrated experience setting product strategy and roadmaps at platform or portfolio scope.
• Deep knowledge of cloud networking concepts, including PrivateLink, VNet peering, Transit Gateway, Private Service Connect, DNS, security groups, and CIDR/IP management across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Experience owning products for enterprise customers with complex compliance, security, and connectivity requirements.
• Proven ability to partner with engineering leadership on architectural direction.
• Strong analytical skills, including unit economics, cost- and risk-sensitive business cases, and platform health metrics.
• AI-native product management experience, using AI tools for research, prioritization, specification writing, and analytics, with sound judgment when validating or overriding AI output.
• Experience designing composable, observable products and APIs that are easy for AI agents and automation to consume.
• Experience mentoring Product Managers and raising the standard of product thinking.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Envoy, service mesh, DNS, and Kubernetes networking.
• Familiarity with Terraform, API-first development, infrastructure-as-code workflows, and enterprise networking automation.
• Exposure to network traffic metering, data transfer billing attribution, cost transparency tooling, or pricing and packaging strategy for cloud infrastructure products.
• Experience with product-led growth or usage-based pricing environments.
• MBA degree.

Additional Information

Confluent is a remote workplace in the United States. The company is an equal opportunity workplace and makes employment decisions based on job-related criteria without regard to protected characteristics.

The compensation range is $231,500–$272,000 per year, plus equity. Actual pay may vary based on skills, qualifications, experience, and work location.