Staff Product Manager, Data Platform

About the role

Vanta is seeking a highly experienced Staff Product Manager to lead the development and strategic direction of its data platform. This role is pivotal in shaping how Vanta collects, stores, and leverages customer and third-party data at scale to support the company's growth and product innovation. You will be responsible for defining the platform's roadmap, working closely with engineering teams to build scalable, reliable, and efficient data infrastructure. Your leadership will enable Vanta to deliver enhanced data-driven features, improve operational efficiency, and support future AI-native applications. This position offers an exciting opportunity to influence core product capabilities and contribute to the company's mission of simplifying compliance and security for its customers.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Develop and own the data platform roadmap, ensuring alignment with overall product and company goals, and prioritize platform investments that deliver long-term value.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to design and implement scalable data infrastructure, focusing on data ingestion, extraction, storage, querying, and API integrations.
• Work closely with other product teams to understand their platform needs, anticipate future requirements, and translate these into clear technical and strategic plans.
• Lead efforts to build new data platform capabilities from inception, ensuring robust architecture, security, and performance standards are met.
• Make strategic trade-offs between developing new features and maintaining platform stability, guiding engineering efforts accordingly.
• Advocate for the data platform internally, encouraging adoption, contributions, and best practices across teams to maximize its utility.
• Engage directly with customers and stakeholders to identify unique data needs, gather feedback, and deliver features that meet specific business and operational outcomes.
• Plan for the platform's scalability over the next 12-18 months, including support for AI-native applications, agent operations, and large-scale data processing.
• Establish and track key performance metrics related to platform scalability, query performance, feature adoption, and data reliability.
• Support and mentor a team of engineers and technical leads dedicated to the data platform, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.
• Ensure compliance with security standards and data privacy regulations, maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of customer data.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate the data platform with other core systems and workflows, ensuring seamless data flow and accessibility.
• Stay informed about emerging trends and technologies in data engineering, AI, and cloud infrastructure to continuously improve platform capabilities.

Requirements

• A minimum of six years supporting platform teams, with significant experience in data platforms or data products.
• Proven success in building new data platforms from the ground up, not just managing existing systems, over extended periods with clear communication.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently while maintaining strong communication channels with engineering teams, product managers, and stakeholders.
• Expertise in structured frameworks for building complex platforms, including goal setting, sequencing, and tracking progress effectively.
• Strong curiosity and a collaborative approach, actively engaging with teams to understand their platform needs and translating those into technical requirements.
• Technical proficiency in core data platform concepts such as data ingestion, extraction, databases, storage solutions, querying, and APIs.
• An outcome-oriented mindset, consistently linking platform efforts to measurable business impacts and customer value.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to prioritize competing demands effectively.
• Authorization to work in the U.S. without requiring employer sponsorship.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth environments is preferred.

Nice to have

• Openness to exploring and utilizing AI tools to enhance productivity and technical capabilities, demonstrating curiosity and responsible judgment in applying AI solutions.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Experience working within security and compliance frameworks relevant to data handling and privacy.
• Knowledge of ITAR regulations or other data security standards is a plus.

Skills & tools

• Data push and pull mechanisms
• Databases and data storage solutions
• Data querying and analysis tools
• APIs and integration frameworks
• Cloud infrastructure and data pipelines
• Data security and privacy best practices

Practical notes

• This role is eligible for comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, parental leave, health and wellness stipends, remote work stipends, commuter benefits, family planning benefits, and 401(k) matching.
• Vanta offers flexible paid time off and observes 11 company-paid holidays.
• The company fosters a diverse and inclusive work environment, encouraging applicants from all backgrounds to apply.
• This position requires on-site work at the company's office location, as specified, and does not include remote or hybrid arrangements unless explicitly stated.
• The role involves working closely with engineering, product, and customer teams to deliver scalable data solutions that drive business success.
• Candidates should be prepared to engage in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with evolving priorities and opportunities for impact.