Staff Product Manager

About the role

In this Staff Product Manager role, you will own the strategic direction and execution of the platform product line that powers Astro's Management Layer. You will be responsible for defining the long-term vision that ensures the control infrastructure can scale across multi-cloud environments. The role requires you to balance the needs of demanding technical users with the realities of engineering constraints and timelines. You will act as the primary thought leader for the platform, ensuring that product decisions align with both customer demands and business objectives. You will synthesize complex technical feedback into a coherent product narrative that guides the engineering organization. This position is pivotal in translating high-level architectural goals into tangible product features that drive adoption. You will ensure that the roadmap remains coherent and executable while navigating the complexities of a sophisticated data operations platform. Your work will directly influence the trajectory of the entire Astronomer product suite.

About the role at Astronomer

Astronomer builds Astro, a leading DataOps platform powered by Apache Airflow. This role focuses on the core platform that supports Astro, which is a sophisticated, multi-cloud environment. You will guide the strategic development of foundational systems for future products. The position is embedded within the Platform team in New York City, operating as a hybrid role with a compensation band of $240,000 - $270,000, plus equity and benefits.

What you'll do

• Establish and guide the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for the platform team, covering Astro's Management Layer and Control Infrastructure.
• Engage with key customers and internal teams to understand needs and define the product roadmap, collaborating with the broader R&D organization.
• Create detailed use cases and product requirements, working with engineering through design, development, and release.
• Assist product marketing and sales enablement in creating customer-focused content and messaging.
• Conduct deep discovery sessions to uncover latent needs within the ecosystem of data platform users.
• Architect the future state of the Management Layer by identifying patterns that reduce friction for platform consumers.
• Synthesize qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics to validate hypotheses about product-market fit.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into clear product hypotheses that engineering teams can execute against.
• Orchestrate the end-to-end lifecycle of complex features from initial concept through launch and post-launch optimization.
• Partner with security and compliance to ensure that product initiatives meet the stringent requirements of enterprise deployments.
• Challenge the status quo by proposing alternative solutions that leverage the unique capabilities of the underlying Airflow infrastructure.
• Develop rigorous success metrics that allow the team to measure the impact of product changes over time.
• Facilitate alignment workshops that bring together engineering, sales, and customer success to ensure shared understanding.
• Maintain a living repository of insights that informs ongoing iterations and long-term strategic planning.

Requirements

• Demonstrate 8-9 years of cumulative experience in SaaS or PaaS product management roles.
• Exhibit a strong technical aptitude that allows for effective communication with senior engineering professionals.
• Show a proactive commitment to driving product vision without being dependent on constant external direction.
• Bring prior experience managing stakeholders with highly technical and demanding requirements.
• Provide evidence of successfully interacting with customers to gather feedback and inform product decisions.
• Display exceptional written and verbal communication skills tailored for cross-functional collaboration.
• Apply strong analytical skills to convert complex data sets into clear strategic recommendations.
• Maintain a history of critical thinking that results in innovative solutions to difficult product challenges.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience building data products that involve complex APIs, authentication flows, and billing systems.
• Demonstrated familiarity with Apache Airflow or similar workflow orchestration tools.
• A track record of contributing to or engaging with open-source software communities.

Skills & tools

• SaaS/PaaS product management
• Product roadmap definition
• Customer engagement
• Requirements gathering
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Data analysis
• Apache Airflow (fluency a plus)

Practical notes

This role offers a comprehensive benefits package. Actual compensation may vary based on skills and experience. Astronomer is an equal opportunity employer.