Staff Product Manager, Self-Hosted and Connected Temporal

Role Summary

Temporal is used by a lot of companies in a wide variety of contexts. Many use Temporal Cloud. Many others users don’t yet know about Temporal Cloud, believe self-hosting is cheaper, and/or just don’t yet see a need to move. Still others (often happily using Temporal Cloud at large scale) also operate environments where a managed service isn't an option today and may never be, like:

• AI and application companies embedding Temporal inside software their own customers run in isolated, air-gapped environments, or offering a remote management BYOA posture
• Large enterprises keeping operational control of critical systems in-house by policy
• Companies operating in sovereign clouds and similar contexts where legal or organizational requirements make outside management difficult or impossible

This role owns understanding the world of Temporal usage outside Cloud, what the different contexts demand, and where Temporal should (and shouldn't) engage. That includes what we build, what we support, what we charge for, and what we leave alone. You'll shape which offerings we pursue and how they make money or contribute to the larger business. Then you'll take the ones we commit to through launch and adoption.

Open source Temporal is central to this. We’re investing heavily in OSS, from performance improvements to easier management to clearer guidance on compatibility and cost. When companies write their apps on Temporal, they’re making a huge bet on us, and that trust is sacred. A large part of this role is improving and shepherding how we keep making OSS better.

What You’ll Do

• Map usage outside Temporal Cloud. Build the company's clearest picture of where Temporal runs outside Cloud and why. Separate structural constraints (air gaps, regulation, owning operational risk) from cost, inertia, and/or other factors. Turn that into segments and use cases leadership can make decisions with.
• Decide what we pursue. Recommend which needs deserve new offerings, which Temporal Cloud should cover, and which we deliberately leave alone. Write the case, defend it, and revisit it when the evidence changes.
• Define the line between open source and paid. Set clear guidelines for which improvements and support go into open source Temporal, and where paid offerings take over. Keep the open source experience strong, and make the line easy for users and internal teams to understand.
• Define the business model. Work with leadership, Sales, and Finance on packaging, pricing, and how we sell offerings that run outside our infrastructure. Know what customers will pay for and what it costs us to support it.
• Help Cloud win where it should. Work with other PMs so workloads that can run on Cloud move there more easily, with a clear value and TCO case.
• Lead without authority. Align Engineering, Resident Architects, Dev Success, Security, and go-to-market teams, including when their incentives conflict.
• Own outcomes. Define success in terms of adoption, revenue, and retention. Use the results to steer further investment.

What You’ll Bring

• A track record of setting product strategy, not only executing it. You've spotted a new offering or market, made the case for it, and seen it through to revenue.
• Experience with infrastructure or platform products that customers operate themselves: open source, on-prem, or hybrid.
• Commercial judgment. You can connect a customer problem to willingness to pay, pricing, and the cost of delivering and supporting the product.
• Technical depth in distributed systems and operations: Kubernetes, databases, replication, upgrades, and failure recovery. You can go deep with engineers and turn the tradeoffs into product decisions.
• Comfort saying "not this" and backing it with evidence. You change course when the facts change.
• Clear writing. You can turn messy evidence from customers and the field into a recommendation leaders can act on.

Nice to Haves

• Experience making money from open source or open-core products
• Familiarity with air-gapped, regulated (FedRAMP, sovereign cloud), or bring-your-own-cloud environments
• Experience selling to platform teams at large enterprises or AI companies

Temporal Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Temporal Technologies does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We embrace and celebrate differences and diversity.

Temporal is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you need to request a reasonable accommodation, please let your Recruiter know so we can assist.