Staff Product Operations Manager

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: We are looking for a Staff Product Operations Manager to serve as the product manager for Confluent's Product Development Lifecycle. Our internal processes are the product. Our PMs are the customers. Your job is to own the improvement roadmap, build and ship those improvements, and iterate based on what is and isn't working. You will translate strategy into working workflows, build the tooling and templates that support them, and run the system day-to-day. You are responsible for making the PDLC work, collects feedback, and iterates on improvements. We want someone who has shipped product, can engage with PMs as a credible peer, and brings the discipline of product thinking to the challenge of how a world-class PM organization operates. What You Will Do: Build the AI-Driven PDLC Take the vision for a modernized, AI-integrated Product Development Lifecycle and make it real. This means implementing AI-driven workflows at every stage — from discovery and customer synthesis through spec, review, and launch — and owning the ongoing iteration that keeps the system current and credible. Build, Implement, and Iterate Turn the design into a working system. This role owns implementation — not just the blueprint. You will roll out new workflows, build and test the tooling and templates that support them, collect PM feedback, and continuously improve. Think of the PDLC as a product in permanent beta. Define the Gold Standard Own the canonical frameworks and templates for core product artifacts: PRFAQ, PRD, NPI, and the rituals that surround them. Keep them current and credible — PMs should see these as genuinely useful, not bureaucratic overhead. Bridge Strategy to Execution Translate product strategy and leadership intent into working processes PMs actually adopt. You will be the connective tissue between what leadership wants to happen and what actually happens on the ground. Drive Change and Adoption Design and lead rollout of every new process. PMs are high-autonomy, skeptical of top-down mandates, and time-constrained. Your job is to earn adoption through empathy, clarity, and demonstrated value, rather than enforcement. Unify Core Rhythms Centralize and standardize key PDLC processes across the PM organization to eliminate fragmentation and reduce the overhead of navigating inconsistent practices across teams. What You Will Bring: 8+ years in Product Management, Product Operations, or a closely related role, with demonstrated experience operating at the intersection of product thinking and process design. Hands-on PM experience. You have shipped product. You understand what it feels like to write a PRFAQ under pressure, navigate a difficult stakeholder review, and make a bet without complete information. PMs will test whether you've lived it; you need to pass that test. Systems thinking at the process layer. You can look at a fragmented, ad-hoc set of workflows and immediately see the clean, elegant architecture that should replace them. You know how to identify leverage points, that unlock disproportionate value. Meaningful AI fluency. You have thought deeply about how AI changes the product development process. Not just as a user of AI tools, but as someone who can design workflows that use AI as infrastructure, for synthesis, review, documentation, and decision support. A track record of driving adoption in high-autonomy orgs. You have convinced skeptical, senior PMs to change how they work through communication, empathy, and evidence, not mandate. Strong written communication. You produce documentation that people actually read. You can write a clear process spec, a tight change management brief, and an executive summary and know how to share that with a remote organization. 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 .