Principal Product Manager, EXAScaler

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC 

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA 

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. 

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. 

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. 

DDN is seeking a Principal Product Manager to lead strategic product areas for EXAScaler. This role shapes product direction, drives cross-team alignment, and represents the product with senior customers and internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the multi-release strategy and roadmap for major EXAScaler product domains.

• Translate strategy into prioritized, outcome-driven roadmaps, clear PRDs, and detailed user stories with measurable success criteria.

• Partner with engineering leadership to make architecture, investment, and sequencing decisions, balancing innovation with reliability and technical debt reduction.

• Act as a senior product voice with customers and partners, including executive briefings, roadmap deep dives, and joint solution planning for large-scale AI and HPC deployments.

• Shape competitive strategy for EXAScaler in AI and high-performance data infrastructure, including pricing and packaging input, win/loss analysis, and market differentiation.

• Use data (product analytics, customer feedback, and financial performance) to drive portfolio-level decisions and product investment trade-offs.

Qualifications

Must Have

• 12+ years of product management experience in infrastructure, data platforms, storage, HPC environments, or cloud services.

• Proven track record of delivering production features at scale, from definition through launch and iteration.

• Demonstrated ability to write concise PRDs and user stories with clear acceptance criteria and measurable success metrics.

• Experience working closely with sales teams, solutions architects, and customers on proof-of-concepts, roadmap discussions, and product escalations.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with data infrastructure supporting AI workloads, including training and inference pipelines or large-scale unstructured data environments.

• Familiarity with parallel file systems and high-performance storage architectures.

• Background in cloud-native architectures including microservices, containers, observability frameworks, and APIs.

• Strong technical depth in at least one of the following:

  • Distributed storage or parallel file systems (Lustre, object, file, block, or key-value storage)

  • Cloud infrastructure platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) or Kubernetes-based environments

• Prior experience working in a B2B enterprise infrastructure company or high-growth technology environment.

DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities: 

Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives. 

Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable. 

Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful. 

Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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