Principal Product Manager

The posting, as SambaNova Systems wrote it

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.

We are looking for a technical product manager to own SambaNova's model and capability roadmap end to end. You will be the product owner and the subject-matter expert on models: you understand why a model matters (architecture, benchmarks, adoption, customer pull) and what it takes to ship it well (function calling, structured output, reasoning, long context, caching, speculative decoding and more). Most importantly, you turn that understanding into decisions, commitments and launches. This is a product role for someone deeply technical, not an engineering role with product tasks attached, but you will stay hands-on: testing new models yourself, finding where they shine and where they break, and building quick mock-ups that show the competitive edge fast inference unlocks.

Responsibilities

Own and drive the roadmap

• Model Stack Rank: Own the unified, weighted stack rank of candidate models across customer demand, capability, market adoption, recency, strategic value and engineering effort. Tune the rubric, make and document overrides, and run the regular prioritization review
• Per-Chip Roadmap: Own the plan of models × hardware generation × configuration × performance targets, and keep it grounded in measured platform data rather than estimates
• Commitments and Launches: Turn priorities into dated commitments with engineering, track them to delivery and run model launches with Marketing, Docs and GTM
• Roadmap Communication: Keep the model roadmap and dashboard current as the source of truth for execs, account teams and customers, and present it with confidence both internally and externally

Define the capability bar

• Feature-Completeness Framework: Own the definition of a “fully featured” model across speed, efficiency, model infrastructure, cloud and API features, for example tool calling, JSON schema and constrained decoding, reasoning controls, full context length, prompt caching, speculative decoding, streaming, logprobs and API compatibility (OpenAI Chat, Responses, Anthropic)
• Gap Management: Find capability and conformance gaps from testing and telemetry, set their priority and drive them to closure with engineering
• Quality Bar: Work with QA and Solutions to set acceptance criteria and the evals a model must pass before it launches

Get hands-on with models

• Model Testing and Evaluation: Get your hands on new models

[…]
ked models; and publish a roadmap that GTM and engineering both sign up to

• 6 months: Measurable cut in time-to-model for priority models, clear visibility into capability gaps for every launched model, and every customer request tracked and answered
• 12 months: The model roadmap is seen as SambaNova's strategic advantage: predictable launches, fully featured models, and a roadmap the field sells against

Base Salary Range

Base Pay Range
$190,000 — $230,000 USD

Submission Guidelines
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.

EEO Policy
SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions
SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.