Technical Product Management Lead, Datacenter Networking & Optical Interconnect - Palo Alto, California, United States

Originally posted 2 September 2026 by the employer.

This role focuses on silicon photonics.

About the role

This role leads technical engagements with customers and partners for datacenter networking and optical interconnect products, owning detailed specification negotiations and translating customer needs into product requirements. The position leverages silicon photonics for product development.

What you'll do

• Lead technical engagement, design, and architecture reviews with customer architecture teams.
• Lead detailed specification negotiation with lead customers, from first draft through agreed sign-off.
• Own specification definition at the customer boundary, including performance measurement and test validation.
• Provide product management support to engineering for requirements, priorities, and trade documentation.
• Author technical content such as white papers, application notes, reference architectures, and conference materials.
• Represent the company technically at conferences and in standards work.

What you'll need

• 10+ years in datacenter networking with depth in switch and fabric architecture.
• Experience as a vendor architect successfully negotiating with skeptical buyers.
• Practical grasp of the optical layer as a networking engineer uses it: link budgets, transceiver compatibility, reach and loss margin.
• Excellent written communication skills for producing scrutinizable documentation.

Skills: product management, customer architecture teams, specification negotiation, quantum computers, silicon photonics