---
title: 'Staff Product Manager, Cloud Networking at Confluent'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-product-manager-cloud-networking-confluent-united-states-46g1y8cxx6aj'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Staff Product Manager, Cloud Networking at Confluent

- **Company:** Confluent
- **Location:** United States
- **Compensation:** $232k–$272k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-05-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/confluent/e70deb8a-3308-49dd-b9c7-b537333c5645

## Job description

We’re not just building better tech. We’re rewriting how data moves and what the world can do with it. With Confluent, data doesn’t sit still. Our platform puts information in motion, streaming in near real-time so companies can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.

It takes a certain kind of person to join this team. Those who ask hard questions, give honest feedback, and show up for each other. No egos, no solo acts. Just smart, curious humans pushing toward something bigger, together.

One Confluent. One Team. One Data Streaming Platform.

## ABOUT THE ROLE:

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.

## WHAT YOU WILL DO:

- 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

## WHAT YOU WILL BRING:

- 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
- 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
- Strong analytical foundation: can model unit economics, build business cases with cost/risk sensitivity, and measure platform health through leading and lagging indicators
- 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
- Experience developing PMs and raising the bar on product thinking — through direct mentorship, feedback, or team processes

## PREFERRED

- 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
- 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
- Experience operating in a product-led growth or usage-based pricing environment
- An MBA degree is a plus

## WHAT GIVES YOU AN EDGE:

- 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

READY TO BUILD WHAT'S NEXT? LET’S GET IN MOTION.

## COME AS YOU ARE

Belonging isn’t a perk here. It’s the baseline. We work across time zones and backgrounds, knowing the best ideas come from different perspectives. And we make space for everyone to lead, grow, and challenge what’s possible.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Employment decisions are based on job-related criteria, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by law.

## PRIVACY STATEMENT

Confluent is an IBM subsidiary which has been acquired by IBM and will be integrated into the IBM organization. By proceeding with this application, you understand that Confluent will share your personal information with other IBM affiliates involved in your recruitment process, wherever these are located. More Information on how IBM protects your personal information, including the safeguards in case of cross-border data transfer, are available here http://ibm.com/careers/us-en/privacy-policy/.

## About Confluent

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Confluent provides a cloud-native data streaming platform built by the original co-creators of Apache Kafka, enabling organizations to stream, process, and react to data in real time.
- **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: CFLT)
- **Headquarters**: Mountain View, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Jay Kreps, Jun Rao, Neha Narkhede

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Data streaming infrastructure, real-time data platforms
- **Target customers**: B2B, enterprise, developers, and data engineers
- **Mission/purpose**: To create the foundational platform for data-in-motion, unleashing the power of continuously flowing data so companies can innovate and win in the modern digital world.

## Products & Services
- **Confluent Cloud**: Fully managed, cloud-native data streaming service powered by the Kora engine. Offers autoscaling, 99.99% uptime SLA, transparent consumption-based pricing, and support for GBps+ workloads.
- **Confluent Platform**: Self-managed distribution of Apache Kafka with enterprise features, including Confluent for Kubernetes and Ansible playbooks for easier on-prem or hybrid deployment.
- **Schema Registry**: Supports Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema for stream governance.
- **120+ Pre-built Connectors**: Integrates with databases, data warehouses, SaaS apps, and cloud services.
- **Cluster Linking**: Enables real-time topic mirroring, data replication, and workload migration across clusters without downtime.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available from provided sources (public company; SEC filings available)
- **Key Metric**: Not publicly available from provided sources (public company; annual revenue disclosed in 10-K filings)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not disclosed in provided sources (public company with institutional investors; partners include major cloud providers)
- **Growth Signals**: 3,263 total employees (Built In), remote-first hiring across 25+ countries, hyper-growth mode, expanding engineering and sales teams globally.

## Competitive Advantages
- Founded by the original co-creators of Apache Kafka, ensuring deep platform expertise and compatibility.
- Complete, enterprise-grade platform with cloud-native architecture (Kora engine) that scales 10x faster than traditional Kafka and delivers 20-90%+ throughput savings.
- Fully compatible with Apache Kafka, allowing seamless migration and hybrid deployments.
- Strong security and compliance posture: SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS certifications.
- 99.99% uptime SLA for production workloads and transparent consumption-based pricing.

## Strategic Focus
- Enabling real-time AI and event-driven applications.
- Expanding global footprint with offices in Mountain View, London, Toronto, Bengaluru, Dubai, and Reston.
- Building a complete ecosystem of connectors and governance tools to simplify data streaming adoption.
- Scaling the platform to handle AI workloads and real-time microservices.

## Why Work Here
- **Remote-first culture**: Work where you thrive – home, office, or anywhere in between. Offices available in 9 locations globally.
- **Flexibility**: Flexible time off, volunteer time off, and support for all paths to parenthood.
- **Compensation**: Competitive equity program with no cliff, plus a one-time home office reimbursement of up to $500 USD.
- **Culture**: Values include “Prioritize Ruthlessly,” “One Team,” “Smart, Humble, and Empathetic,” “Lead with Courage and Honor,” and “Earn Our Customers’ Love.” Direct access to leadership via #ask-estaff Slack channel.
- **Growth**: Hyper-growth environment with opportunities to work on cutting-edge data streaming technology. Engineering roles span senior software engineers, staff engineers, and engineering managers.

## Sources
1. [careers.confluent.io](https://careers.confluent.io/)
2. [confluent.io](https://www.confluent.io/)
3. [confluent.io/about](https://www.confluent.io/about/)
4. [builtin.com/company/confluent](https://builtin.com/company/confluent)
5. [careers.confluent.io/life-at-confluent](https://careers.confluent.io/life-at-confluent)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/confluent](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/confluent)

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