VP Product, Core Products

Aerospike is the real-time database for mission-critical workloads. We power millions of transactions per second with millisecond latency, all while keeping total cost of ownership lower than competing solutions. At Aerospike, we dream big and deliver even bigger. Our mission is to unleash the power of the world’s real-time data with a database built for infinite scale, speed, and sustainability . If you're ready to shape the future of data, join us. We are hiring a product leader to oversee the strategy, execution, and overall success of our Database product family. This includes Aerospike Database, Backup & Recovery, Connectors, Observability, and Aerospike Kubernetes Operator. The role also includes ownership of the Aerospike Database component of our fully-managed cloud products. This is a senior-level, cross-functional leadership position requiring a unique blend of deep distributed systems and cloud-native operational rigor, with a focus on delivering results quickly. It is responsible for the full product lifecycle and plays a key role in shaping Aerospike’s roadmap, customer experience, and market success. Key Responsibilities Product Leadership and Strategy Develop and drive the multi-year technical roadmap, investment strategy, and lifecycle execution for Aerospike’s core distributed database and its supporting ecosystem. Translate platform goals into an integrated roadmap covering multiple product areas. Make thoughtful investment decisions across net-new innovation, elastic platform scalability, multi-tenant cloud economics, and absolute operational reliability. Conduct regular market and competitive analysis to identify trends and inform strategy. Collaborate with engineering, field, marketing, customer success, and design teams to deliver aligned and effective outcomes. Maintain a clear understanding of user needs and advocate for user experience improvements throughout the product lifecycle. Portfolio Management Maintain a portfolio-level view across all related products, ensuring clarity of ownership and coordination. Prioritize initiatives and themes based on customer needs, technical constraints, and business impact. Use product data, telemetry, and customer feedback to inform roadmap and success measures. Support long-term planning and roadmap development across multiple time horizons. Customer Engagement and Advocacy Act as an executive sponsor and senior point of contact for key customers. Build a deep understanding of enterprise use cases, particularly hybrid and cloud-native deployments. Represent the developer and database operator perspectives in product decisions and core engineering cycles, driving friction-free deployment automation and world class observability into the platform. Execution and Delivery Lead and mentor a team of product managers across the portfolio. Define and track key performance indicators such as adoption, satisfaction, and business value. Ensure ongoing measurement of product performance, quality, and customer impact. Partner with engineering leadership to ensure timely and high-quality product delivery. Arm sales engineering, marketing, and customer success teams with the technical blueprints and value propositions required to land new and accelerate enterprise adoption. Requirements Experience 10 or more years in product management, with at least 5 years focused on enterprise software or data infrastructure in a leadership role. Proven experience managing a portfolio of interrelated products and teams. Strong background in distributed systems, database technology, or Kubernetes-based environments. Exposure to both self-managed and cloud delivery models is preferred. Familiarity with enterprise IT needs including backup, restore, observability, and deployment automation. Skills Clear and confident communicator with the ability to influence at all levels. Technically fluent and able to collaborate effectively with engineers, architects, and product teams. Comfortable navigating ambiguity and building alignment across functions. Strong balance of strategic thinking and operational execution. Experience using metrics and analytics to inform prioritization and measure success. Why This Role Matters The Aerospike Database is central to real-time systems used by global leaders in finance, e-commerce, gaming, and telecommunications. The supporting products you will manage shape how developers and operators interact with the platform. Your leadership will drive innovation, improve user experience, and help Aerospike continue to deliver market-leading performance and reliability. What We Offer A leadership role with significant influence on company strategy Opportunity to shape a modern, cloud-centric data platform Competitive compensation, benefits, and remote flexibility Aerospike is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing an environment free from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. Join us at Aerospike and be part of a dynamic team that is shaping the future of data management. Salary Range for California Based Applicants: [$300,000 - $335,000] (actual compensation will be determined based on experience, location, and other factors permitted by law).