Technical Product Manager, Storage Hardware Platforms at Cloudian, Inc

About the Job

This is not a software product management role.  If you have not defined server specifications, qualified storage hardware, or managed ODM/OEM vendor relationships, this role is not the right fit for you.

Immediate Technical Focus: Your initial priority is the hardware and software platforms for our Object Storage products. You will navigate a challenging global supply chain landscape to formulate viable strategies that ensure our software is deployed on hardware that meets our rigorous performance and reliability requirements. This role requires significant technical expertise in storage platforms and the ability to bridge the gap between "Software Defined Storage" and the physical appliances that power it.

Long-term Growth: As a Product Manager at Cloudian, you will lead the research, design, and development activities that guide the lifecycle management of our technology products.  Over time, you will extend your influence to the broader product roadmap, aligning business goals with market intelligence and customer needs. You will manage feature request priorities, coordinate delivery schedules, and maintain critical relationships with vendors and customers to stay ahead of innovative technologies and market trends.

Responsibilities

• Platform Strategy & Hardware Qualification: Collaborate with stakeholders to formulate strategies for both hardware and software storage platforms. This includes evaluating options for Cloudian-supplied appliances and defining hardware server specifications.
• Supply Chain & Vendor Management: Work directly with hardware vendors to navigate supply chain constraints, ensuring product availability and budget-friendly releases without compromising on technical standards.
• Storage Subject Matter Expertise: Establish yourself as the SME for hardware/software platform interoperability. You will ensure that Cloudian’s "Software Defined Storage" is qualified for and deployed on hardware that satisfies all technical requirements.  You are the person who can walk into a vendor meeting and evaluate drive specifications, controller choices, and chassis designs against our software's performance requirements.
• Lifecycle Management: Manage, support, and enhance products throughout their entire lifecycle—from initial specification to rollout and ongoing optimization.
• Technical Advocacy: Conduct in-depth technical presentations with customers and partners. Gather field feedback to influence future product specifications and solution offerings.
• Requirements Engineering: Define detailed user stories, product specifications, and acceptance criteria to communicate the vision and technical requirements to the development team.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Sales, Support, Marketing, Engineering, and Operations to ensure stakeholder needs are implemented correctly and go-to-market strategies are successful.
• Market Analysis: Analyze customer usage data, competitor products, and emerging industry trends to make informed, data-driven product decisions.

Requirements

This role is not the right fit if:

• Your storage experience is limited to consuming cloud storage services (S3, Azure Blob, GCS) as a developer or architect
• Your background is primarily SaaS, mobile, or consumer software products
• You are looking to transition into hardware from a pure software PM background

We are looking for the following:

• Deep Storage Expertise: Strong technical acumen regarding storage platforms and architectures (Object Storage, SDS, etc.).  Hands-on familiarity with storage performance benchmarking (IOPS, throughput, latency).  Direct experience qualifying x86 server hardware for storage workloads.
• Hardware/Engineering Background: 5–15 years of experience in product planning or an engineering-related field. Hands-on experience defining server hardware specifications, qualifying storage platforms, and managing ODM/OEM vendor relationships is required. Candidates without this background will not be considered.
• Working knowledge of: NVMe, SAS, SATA, HDD/SSD drive selection, RAID configurations, server BOMs, IPMI/BMC firmware, erasure coding, and object storage protocols (S3-compatible). Familiarity with vendors such as Supermicro, Seagate, Western Digital, Micron, or comparable ODMs is strongly preferred.
• Experience with storage security requirements including encryption at rest, key management, access control, and compliance frameworks (FIPS, FedRAMP, or equivalent) as applied to storage products.
• System Knowledge: Proficient in Linux with basic scripting knowledge.
• Strategic Communication: Proven ability to present findings, technical roadmaps, and recommendations to C-level audiences.
• Execution & Methodology: Familiarity with Agile, Waterfall, and Lean product development. Ability to prioritize and deliver value in a fast-paced environment.
• Evangelism: Ability to act as a product spokesperson, assisting with high-level technical demos and training.
• Tools: Desired familiarity with Atlassian (Jira/Confluence), Salesforce.
• Education: BS/BA in a technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Travel: Ability to travel up to 15% for vendor, customer, and partner engagements.