Staff Product Operations Manager

Confluent is a company focused on revolutionizing data movement and real-time information processing. They are seeking a Staff Product Operations Manager to oversee the Product Development Lifecycle, implementing and iterating on workflows and improvements to enhance product management processes.

Responsibilities:

• Build the AI-Driven PDLC Take the vision for a modernized, AI-integrated Product Development Lifecycle and make it real. This means implementing AI-driven workflows at every stage — from discovery and customer synthesis through spec, review, and launch — and owning the ongoing iteration that keeps the system current and credible
• Build, Implement, and Iterate Turn the design into a working system. This role owns implementation — not just the blueprint. You will roll out new workflows, build and test the tooling and templates that support them, collect PM feedback, and continuously improve. Think of the PDLC as a product in permanent beta
• Define the Gold Standard Own the canonical frameworks and templates for core product artifacts: PRFAQ, PRD, NPI, and the rituals that surround them. Keep them current and credible — PMs should see these as genuinely useful, not bureaucratic overhead
• Bridge Strategy to Execution Translate product strategy and leadership intent into working processes PMs actually adopt. You will be the connective tissue between what leadership wants to happen and what actually happens on the ground
• Drive Change and Adoption Design and lead rollout of every new process. PMs are high-autonomy, skeptical of top-down mandates, and time-constrained. Your job is to earn adoption through empathy, clarity, and demonstrated value, rather than enforcement
• Unify Core Rhythms Centralize and standardize key PDLC processes across the PM organization to eliminate fragmentation and reduce the overhead of navigating inconsistent practices across teams

Requirements:

• 8+ years in Product Management, Product Operations, or a closely related role, with demonstrated experience operating at the intersection of product thinking and process design
• Hands-on PM experience. You have shipped product. You understand what it feels like to write a PRFAQ under pressure, navigate a difficult stakeholder review, and make a bet without complete information
• Systems thinking at the process layer. You can look at a fragmented, ad-hoc set of workflows and immediately see the clean, elegant architecture that should replace them
• Meaningful AI fluency. You have thought deeply about how AI changes the product development process
• A track record of driving adoption in high-autonomy orgs. You have convinced skeptical, senior PMs to change how they work through communication, empathy, and evidence, not mandate
• Strong written communication. You produce documentation that people actually read