Principal Product Manager

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation. 
 

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

Who We Are

At F5, we help organizations deliver and secure extraordinary digital experiences by building and supporting solutions that enable the modern, adaptive applications customers rely on. Our Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) powers complex infrastructures across a wide range of industries, from SMBs to global enterprises, by meeting their unique operational and security needs.   

As part of the broader F5 family, NGINX plays a pivotal role in enabling organizations to build high-performing, scalable application delivery architectures. Widely trusted as one of the most used open-source technologies, NGINX enables developers to build, deploy, and scale modern applications with confidence. 

We are seeking a Principal Product Manager to join us on this journey and play a critical role in shaping the future of NGINX and its position within the Application Delivery and Security Platform. 
 

The Role

As Principal Product Manager for NGINX, you’ll be a key player in shaping how NGINX grows. Working side-by-side with the Director of Product Management, you’ll help shape and execute the NGINX product vision. Your influence will extend across refining market approaches, finding creative ways to grow revenue, and building strong connections within the open-source community. You’ll also be instrumental in accelerating the adoption of cloud-native architectures, making sure our products keep up with the latest industry trends and truly meet our customers’ needs. 
 

To thrive in this role, you should be someone who enjoys solving complex technical problems and pays close attention to details. You’ll work at the intersection of open-source technology and modern application environments like Kubernetes, bringing together people from different teams—including Technical Product Managers—to deliver solutions that matter. If you’re excited about leading change, collaborating with others, and making a real impact on customers and the wider tech community, we’d love to hear from you. 

Key Responsibilities

• Refine and articulate a clear product vision and strategy for NGINX Open Source and Plus, ensuring alignment with market trends, customer needs, and organizational objectives.  
• Develop and maintain detailed product roadmaps, collaborating with stakeholders to prioritize initiatives and drive execution. 
• Partner with marketing and sales teams to position NGINX as a key component of F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), crafting compelling narratives for both enterprise and SMB audiences. 
• Influence and inform monetization strategy, identifying opportunities for scalable business models and aligning product direction with revenue goals. 
• Collaborate with Technical Product Managers and engineering teams to deliver developer-centric solutions, ensuring feasibility and technical depth. 
• Build meaningful relationships within the NGINX open source community, fostering engagement, extracting insights, and driving growth. 
• Ensuring alignment with cloud native ecosystems, technologies like Kubernetes, cloud-native tools, and DevOps workflows. 
• Mentor team members within the product management organization, supporting professional development and championing collaborative best practices. 
• Act as a trusted advisor to the Director of Product Management, contributing strategic insights and product recommendations. 
• Define and track relevant KPIs and success metrics for product outcomes and community engagement, iterating strategies based on product data.  

About You

• Strategic yet hands-on, capable of defining a vision while ensuring its execution through practical products and detailed roadmaps. 
• Customer-centric and market-savvy, with a passion for creating solutions that address genuine pain points and deliver value across diverse audiences. 
• A natural connector who excels at collaborating across highly technical and non-technical teams, bringing stakeholders along on the journey. 
• Detail-oriented but adaptable, ready to shift priorities as needed while still driving toward long-term success. 
• A strong advocate for developer workflows and open source communities, fostering innovation and collaboration with transparency. 
• Team-oriented, energized by supporting and mentoring others while contributing to a culture of growth and excellence. 
• Resilient, thriving in fast-paced environments and navigating challenges with a resourceful mindset. 

What You Bring

• 10+ years of product management experience in the software industry, including a combination of on-premise, installed, and deployable software. 
• Strong customer orientation with the ability to listen, organize and champion key initiatives and projects for product development. 
• Proven experience driving global products with a customer base that ranges from SMBs to enterprise-scale organizations. 
• Expertise in cloud-native architectures and tools, including Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, API gateways, and AWS. 
• Experience defining and monetizing products, with proficiency in subscription, licensing, and open-source business models. 
• Deep knowledge of Developer Operations (DevOps) and application development, with an understanding of developer workflows and tooling. 
• Experience fostering and engaging developer communities, particularly in the open-source space. 
• Background working with or competing against technologies such as NGINX (experience with NGINX Plus or Open Source is a plus) and related platforms like Envoy, HAProxy, or Traefik. 
• Deep understanding of web traffic and application infrastructure, technical understanding of modern web standards, protocols and how their use derives value for customers. DNS/HTTP/TLS, WAF/WAAP/authN/Z security technologies, and CI/CD 
• Demonstrated success managing mature products, balancing innovation with maintenance. 
• Exceptional collaboration and leadership skills, with a proven ability to mentor and lead diverse teams. 
• Willingness to travel up to 20%  

Why Join Us?

At F5, we believe the most valuable work is powered by actionable ideas, inspiring collaboration, and enthusiastic purpose. As the Principal Product Manager of NGINX, you'll work with world-class teams to deliver solutions that meet customers and developers where they are. Joining F5 offers the opportunity to work in a global, customer-focused environment that celebrates innovation and supports professional growth

#LI-JB1

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

The annual base pay for this position is: $196,000.00 - $294,000.00

F5 maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, geographic locations, and market conditions, as well as to reflect F5’s differing products, industries, and lines of business. The pay range referenced is as of the time of the job posting and is subject to change.

You may also be offered incentive compensation, bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits. More details about F5’s benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.f5.com/company/careers/benefits. F5 reserves the right to change or terminate any benefit plan without notice. 

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination.  F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting accommodations@f5.com.