Principal Product Manager - Virtualization Architect

Principal Product Manager - Virtualization Architect This role has been designated as 'Remote/Teleworker', which means you will primarily work from home. Job Description: Job Family Definition: Designs, plans, develops, and manages a product or portfolio of virtualization products throughout the solution lifecycle - from new product definition or enhancements to existing platforms; planning, design, forecasting, and production; to end of life. This role is deeply embedded in the open-source virtualization ecosystem, with a focus on KVM-based hypervisor technologies, virtual machine lifecycle management, and cloud-native infrastructure. The Product Manager for Virtualization Platforms/KVM is responsible for defining and driving the strategy, roadmap, and execution of products built on the Linux KVM hypervisor stack. This role sits at the intersection of deep virtualization technology expertise and strategic product leadership. The ideal candidate brings hands-on knowledge of KVM, QEMU, libvirt, virtio, and related ecosystem components, combined with the ability to translate complex hypervisor capabilities into differentiated, market-leading products. The Product Manager works closely with engineering, customers, partners, and sales to identify market needs across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments - prioritizing features that deliver scalable, secure, and high-performance virtualization solutions. Core Focus Areas Include: • KVM hypervisor platform strategy and competitive differentiation • Virtual machine performance optimization, live migration, and resource scheduling • Virtualized networking (OVS, SR-IOV, DPDK) and storage (virtio-blk, virtio-scsi, SDS integration) • Guest OS compatibility, vCPU/memory optimization, and hardware passthrough (PCIe, GPU) • Security hardening of the virtualization stack (SELinux, sVirt, VM isolation) • Integration with orchestration layers such as OpenStack, oVirt, and Kubernetes/KubeVirt Responsibilities: • Independently leads end-to-end strategy and operational roadmap for one or more KVM-based virtualization products or a broader virtualization platform portfolio, spanning hypervisor core, management APIs, and guest ecosystem. • Defines and drives the virtualization platform value proposition - including performance benchmarks, TCO advantages, and feature differentiation versus VMware, Hyper-V, and other competing hypervisor stacks - to support go-to-market and sales enablement. • Synthesizes market and customer requirements (MRDs) by maintaining deep knowledge of enterprise virtualization use cases: VDI, server consolidation, cloud-native workloads, telco NFV/edge, and HPC virtualization. • Translates KVM/QEMU/libvirt engineering capabilities into customer-facing requirements and product specifications, ensuring technical feasibility and roadmap alignment with upstream open-source communities (e.g., Linux kernel KVM subsystem, QEMU project). • Guides key stakeholders through all lifecycle phases - from hypervisor feature planning and kernel integration to product launch, sustaining engineering, and platform end-of-life planning. • Collaborates across engineering, supply chain, and marketing to optimize product configuration, SKU design, pricing, and go-to-market strategies for virtualization platform offerings. • Acts as a subject matter authority on KVM virtualization architecture, providing technical direction to internal teams, enabling sales and partner technical communities, and representing the product externally with customers and at industry forums. Education and Experience Required: • Bachelor's degree or equivalent in computer science, engineering or related field of study. MBA or advanced degree in computer science or engineering preferred. • 10+ years of experience in product management, engineering, or a related technical role, with significant exposure to virtualization platforms and hypervisor technologies. • Demonstrated hands-on or architectural familiarity with KVM, QEMU, libvirt, and the broader Linux virtualization stack; experience with upstream open-source contribution or community engagement is a strong plus. Knowledge and Skills: • Deep technical knowledge of KVM hypervisor architecture, virtual machine lifecycle, vCPU scheduling, memory management (huge pages, NUMA), virtio device emulation, and hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x/AMD-V, IOMMU). • Strong understanding of virtualized networking (OVS, macvtap, SR-IOV, DPDK) and storage virtualization (virtio, iSCSI, NVMe-oF, Ceph/RBD) as they apply to KVM guest workloads. • Familiarity with virtualization management and orchestration ecosystems - including libvirt APIs, oVirt, OpenStack Nova, and KubeVirt - and the ability to define product integration requirements across these layers. • Extensive cross-functional leadership skills: ability to drive alignment across engineering, field, and partner organizations on complex, technically ambiguous virtualization platform initiatives. • Strong financial and business acumen, including experience building business cases, defining performance metrics, and analyzing competitive positioning for infrastructure software products. • Ability to provide product-specific technical training and enablement to sales, partners, and customer-facing teams on KVM and virtualization platform capabilities. • Experience engaging with open-source ecosystems and upstream communities (Linux kernel, QEMU, libvirt, oVirt, OpenStack) as a product stakeholder. What We Can Offer You: Health & Wellbeing We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing. Personal & Professional Development We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have - whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division. Unconditional Inclusion We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good. Let's Stay Connected: #unitedstates #hybridcloud Job: Engineering Job Level: TCP_05 "The expected salary/wage range for this position is provided below. Actual offer may vary from this range based upon geographic location, work experience, education/training, and/or skill level. - United States of America: Annual Salary USD 160,000 - 303,000 in Colorado // 172,000 - 328,000 in Massachusetts // 172,000 - 349,000 in California // 152,000 - 349,000 in Arizona & Florida & North Carolina & Texas & Washington The listed salary range reflects base salary. Variable incentives may also be offered." Information about employee benefits offered in the US can be found at https://myhperewards.com/main/new-hire-enrollment.html The estimated job application period closure is June 1 2026; this timeline is provided for transparency and internal planning purposes.