VP, Product

Lots of tech companies disrupt. But, many fail when they try to scale. We're different. CockroachDB makes it easier for companies to build and scale apps. This is how and why we're helping some of the most innovative companies on the planet. We tackle problems head-on and focus on solutions that create lasting impact. 

The VP, Product will play a pivotal role in shaping and scaling our global Product organization, overseeing Product Management, Product Design, and Product Marketing. This leader will bring deep systems thinking, emphasizing the importance of the processes and practices that generate exceptional products, not merely the products themselves. Critical to this role is agility—navigating uncertainty, challenging assumptions, and continuously evolving our approach. We seek someone humble enough to deeply understand and build upon what has driven our success to date while confidently applying their experience and insights.

• Implement and continuously refine the processes and frameworks that result in clear, impactful product strategies and roadmaps.
• Foster a culture deeply rooted in customer-centricity, leveraging customer insights to inform strategic decisions.
• Collaborate closely with executive leadership, ensuring product initiatives align dynamically with evolving business priorities and market conditions.
• Cultivate and maintain strong partnerships with key customers and stakeholders to guide future product direction.

• Work collaboratively and fluidly with Engineering, GTM, and other cross-functional teams, driving integrated and efficient product execution.
• Continuously improve operational excellence through agile processes, rapid experimentation, and iterative learning.

• Grow and nurture high-performing Product Management, Product Design, and Product Marketing teams, fostering a culture that values curiosity, continuous learning, and adaptability.
• Establish clear, meaningful success metrics for product initiatives, driving accountability through regular measurement, analysis, and adaptation.
• Attract, mentor, and retain exceptional talent by prioritizing career development, fostering engagement, and celebrating collaborative achievement.

• Refine and run the “operating system” for the product management team.
• Evaluate and optimize the Product Management, Product Design, and Product Marketing team’s impact on company goals, addressing any gaps proactively.
• Drive product strategy for CockroachDB and Cloud, ensuring a highly available, scalable, and high-performance architecture.
• Lead the global, high-performing product organization, including managing and mentoring Director-level product leaders.
• Balance platform investments to support the needs of large self-hosted customers while enabling SaaS customers.
• Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, GTM, Finance, and Legal to ensure seamless product execution and business alignment.
• Develop and execute the technical partnership strategy in collaboration with our channels team.
• Influence at the executive level, effectively communicating product progress, market fit, and financial impact.
• Stay informed on industry trends, competitive dynamics, and emerging technologies in cloud infrastructure, databases, and developer platforms.

First 30 Days:

• Gain a deep understanding of our market, strategic priorities, and active initiatives.
• Learn how we build products for self-hosted and SaaS users, and the tradeoffs involved.
• Meet your direct reports, their teams, and key stakeholders across Engineering, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing.
• Take over product leadership responsibilities, including leading PM rituals and MBO goal setting

First 3 Months:

• Be fully integrated into the team and develop a hypothesis on key product investments.
• Identify what capabilities we need to build in order to help developers build world-changing apps.
• Socialize your vision with the EVP of R&D and executive team to align on next steps.

• 15+ years of experience in Product Management, Product Design, and Product Marketing with 10+ years in leadership roles.
• Proven experience leading product teams in database companies, preferably distributed SQL or distributed systems.
• Experience scaling and retaining high-performing, global teams, including managing managers in complex orgs.
• Demonstrated success in building and scaling developer platforms or cloud infrastructure products.
• Deep experience collaborating cross-functionally with Engineering, GTM, Finance, and Legal.
• Strong communication, public speaking, and leadership skills, with experience influencing at the executive level.
• A track record of delivering high-impact, cross-functional projects that drive company-wide initiatives.
• Excellent writing skills – our strategic product meetings rely on written docs, not slides.

Reporting to Isaac Wong - Executive Vice President, R&D

Isaac is responsible for the health of the global R&D organization at Cockroach Labs. He partners closely with teams to ensure we have a balanced culture that promotes quality and innovation in pursuit of our goals. Before joining Cockroach Labs Isaac was in life sciences for 16 years with Medidata Solutions where he had a front row seat on the exciting ride from a 30 person startup to more than 2000 people worldwide. But the lure of distributed, resilient, and consistent SQL databases, along with the amazing technology and culture at Cockroach Labs proved too much. When not working he likes to draw, play the piano, and search NYC for cannoli's with his wife and kids.

Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at [email protected].

Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with Roachers that are local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week. While we’ve learned valuable lessons working remotely, nothing can replace the connection, creativity, and fun that occurs when Roachers get together and we are committed to fostering a workplace that encourages collaboration and allows us all to do our best work.

• Stock Options
• Medical Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Professional Development Funds
• Flexible Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Sick Days
• Paid Parental Leave
• Retirement Benefits
• Mental Wellbeing Benefits
• And more!