Principal, Product Manager

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.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.