Open source is our beating heart and it’s something that fuels our work and our culture. It’s where we began. It’s where we’ll always be. Our vision is to become the trusted open source data platform for everyone. We are a Cast of over 400 individuals (‘Crabs’) located across the globe. Why Crabs? Because we believe in thinking sideways. And right now, we’re looking for sideways-thinking Product Manager.

The Product team at Aiven lies at the core of our organization. This is a great opportunity to become an integral team member as a Product Manager.

We look for engineers who can work around problems by finding new angles. That means both creative and lateral approaches. Thinking sideways.

You will have the opportunity to collaborate with world-class tech people solving the toughest problems, where almost every project you work on is more complex and technically challenging than the previous one.

If you relish pushing your technical boundaries, come join us. Because if you can truly think sideways, you’ll never look back.

Who we are

So, how do we become the trusted open source data platform for everyone? By listening closely to our customers and taking action to ensure they achieve their business goals. You see, the software we create is merely a means of delivering value. Our thinking is customer-first. That’s why our customers are at the front and center of all we do. And in the spirit of sideways thinking, we’re by their side as well. Actively helping them solve their challenges. Collaborating. Sharing. And innovating. In other words, it really isn’t just about who we are. It’s about who our customers are – and where they want to be.

Our values

We want individuals who can embody our values of ownership, courage, and openness.

What does that mean in practice?

We take ownership of the problems we solve. What we do is about improving life for our customers, enabling them to meet their goals. So we own our decisions and mistakes. Sometimes that takes courage. But we don’t falter – we take on challenges with confidence. And right at our heart is openness. We’re always open to new ideas – from wherever and whoever they come.

The Role:

Our team is looking for a customer-focused product manager to be responsible for the Aiven user experience.

At Aiven, we’re on a mission to build the trusted open source data platform for everyone. We offer 11 open source products, including Kafka, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Grafana, OpenSearch, Cassandra, and more, on top of our multi-cloud platform. Our customers can access our platform and services through different interfaces, primarily the Aiven web console as well as the Aiven CLI, API, Terraform provider and Kubernetes Operator. Our user experience must cater towards the developer using our free services all the way up to large deployments in Fortune 50 companies.

Our Product organization is split into domains: Database Engines, Streaming Technologies, Platform. This role sits within the Platform domain, and will focus on the interfaces our users, partners and internal teams use to sign up, provision, connect, configure, monitor and scale Aiven services. This means a mix of user interfaces spanning from our web console, down to the APIs that power our integrations which customers use to integrate the Aiven platform into their own services and technologies. In this role, you will collaborate closely with Product Design and the rest of Product Management to define the value proposition for the Aiven console for different persona, customer segments and stages in the customer journey. You will work directly with customers and use data to identify product functionality that will drive product led growth and improve our developer experience for the individual along with the large Enterprise. You will be responsible for identifying opportunities and scoping problems, and then will collaborate with the feature leads in the Engineering teams on defining and delivering technical solutions.

What You'll Do:

Responsibilities

• Be responsible for the Aiven user experience and its roadmap across interfaces.
• Closely collaborate with Product Design and Analytics to develop an in-depth understanding of how our users engage with our product.
• Partner and align with colleagues across the Product, Solution Architecture, Design, and Marketing teams to better understand our customer needs.
• Propose cases for product extensions and enhancements, considering the additional development capacity and investment needed to make it a reality.
• Start from the customer perspective to understand the problem to be solved and break those down into the major deliverables for engineering, including the priorities of the work.
• Prioritize the engineering backlog for execution.
• Support Engineering in day-to-day decision-making around product improvements & bug fixes.
• Be a leader for Aiven to drive product innovations and build communication paths to our users and potential users.

What We're Looking For:

Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t line up perfectly – we still encourage you to apply! We believe in investing in our crabs’ professional growth.

Must have

• 3 to 5 years of experience as a Product Manager in a SaaS or cloud services, driving cross-functional initiatives throughout their lifecycle from conception to planning to execution to delivery.
• Excellent communication skills. You are used to working cross functionally, with both technical and non-technical teams.
• Customer-centric perspective to all problems you are trying to solve, thinking from the customer perspective first.
• Commercial awareness. You look to quantify the commercial impact of the work you do. Experience being directly responsible for commercial targets (such as new customer acquisition or NRR) is an advantage.
• Focus on the user experience. Specifically, you focus on identifying and scoping opportunities based on data and user research, and then work collaboratively with Engineering on defining and implementing technical solutions. Wherever possible, you test assumptions and look to deliver incremental value.
• Familiarity with agile development methodologies and tools (such as Jira).
• Using data to identify new opportunities and measure impact. You have experience working with Product Analytics tools such as Amplitude, Mixpanel or Posthog.

Nice to have

• Bachelors or Masters degree in a technical field
• Experience with UX focused development
• Experience with both external and internal customers as key stakeholders to manage in roadmap planning and development

Our Offer

If you ask us what’s the best thing about working for Aiven, many will probably say it’s the high concentration of talent from around the world that we have here. Enjoy the agile environment of a hyperscale scale-up where you can truly make an impact and have fun while at it.

We invest in you

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Dreaming of flexible work arrangements? Look no further. Work in one of our hubs, fully remote, or anything in between.
• Get the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Step up your career game with real employer support (use one of our learning platforms, annual learning budget, and more).
• Get holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.

Make a difference at Aiven

• Contribute to open source projects that you find meaningful outside of work - and get paid for it! Our Plankton program recognizes extra work to the open source ecosystem for developers and non-developers alike.
• Use up to 5 days per year to volunteer for a good cause of your choice.
• Join one of our team member resource groups - empower yourself and others in missions that resonate with you.

What else?

• Your wellbeing matters: we provide professional massage at the office as well as health and fitness benefits through Urban Sport Club membership
• Love breakfast? So do we! Join us at our monthly team breakfast
• Know someone who would be the perfect fit for Aiven? You can benefit from our referral bonus programme as soon as you join.

Amazing! What’s next?

If you think Aiven is the place for you, send us your CV, and we’ll get in touch!

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Equal Opportunities

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

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