Product Manager (SQL Foundations)

Category-Defining Tech. Career-Defining Work.

Lots of tech companies disrupt. But, many fail when they try to scale. We're different. CockroachDB makes it easier for companies to build and scale apps. This is how and why we're helping some of the most innovative companies on the planet. We tackle problems head-on and focus on solutions that create lasting impact. 

Because When Our Customers Win, We All Win.

The Role

We are looking for a Product Manager to shape the future of CockroachDB’s SQL Foundations, the core of how developers and operators interact with data. You’ll own the SQL syntax, schema capabilities, and connection management that enable developers to confidently build, migrate, and scale applications on CockroachDB.

By focusing on making SQL intuitive, standards-compliant, and deeply integrated with modern development workflows, you’ll help developers feel at home with CockroachDB, making it easy to adopt familiar patterns and optimize for distributed scale where needed. Your work will ensure CockroachDB works with the tools, ORMs, and drivers developers rely on, while also giving operators powerful data lifecycle controls such as row-level TTL for automated data management.

Your primary team will be the SQL Foundations engineering team, while also collaborating with ORM/driver maintainers, SQL Queries team and performance engineering to deliver features that are both technically sound and highly impactful for customers.

You Will

• Define and drive the SQL Foundations roadmap, focusing on developer experience, standards compliance, and long-term technical investments.
• Advance SQL syntax and schema capabilities, making it easy for developers to adopt familiar patterns while offering clear paths to optimize for distributed scale.
• Improve integration with development tools, ORMs, and drivers, reducing friction for application developers adopting CockroachDB.
• Guide the evolution of connection and session management to ensure predictable performance and scalability across distributed environments.
• Collaborate across product, engineering, and community teams to ensure the SQL layer integrates seamlessly into CockroachDB’s broader architecture.
• Engage with customers and the developer community, translating feedback on SQL usability, migrations, and performance into clear priorities.
• Champion developer empathy, ensuring CockroachDB feels both familiar and powerful as a SQL-first experience.

The Expectations

In the first 30–60 days, you will go through PM onboarding with your onboarding mentor (Roachmate). You will familiarize yourself with the current state of our SQL Foundations capabilities, from syntax and schema design to session management and TTL features. You’ll build and query applications against CockroachDB yourself using ORMs, drivers, and common developer tools to experience firsthand how customers interact with the product. You’ll review the current backlog, explore in-flight initiatives, and begin to understand the most pressing developer and operator challenges.

After 90 days, you will be fully integrated into the team. You will conduct customer and developer calls, and work with internal field teams to understand real-world pain points around SQL usage, application development, and migration. You will take ownership of prioritizing the most impactful opportunities — those that help developers feel at home with CockroachDB while optimizing for distributed scale.

As the owner of this integral layer of the product, you will influence the direction of CockroachDB adoption, advising senior leaders on how SQL Foundations investments can accelerate customer and business growth. You will also partner closely with Sales and Customer Success teams, meeting with important customers and their application developers, DBAs, and architects to represent the SQL Foundations roadmap and vision.

You will also create and influence content – from technical blogs and documentation to customer webinars – that guides customers toward best practices and long-term success. Whether explaining how to manage CockroachDB connections most effectively, how to design schemas for scale, or how to make the most of row-level TTL, your work will help developers and operators unlock CockroachDB’s full potential.

You Have

• A CS degree, or equivalent software engineering background, with strong familiarity in databases, SQL, and application development.
• Minimum 4 years of total work experience and 2 years as a PM working with software engineers as customers
• Hands-on experience with SQL, designing schemas, writing queries, or working with ORMs and drivers in production applications
• Proven ability to partner with senior engineering teams and lead cross-functional initiatives
• Strong track record of engaging directly with developers and operators to understand workflows, identify pain points, and translate them into impactful product improvements
• A collaborative approach and eagerness to work closely with other product teams and company functions such as Engineering, Design, Docs, Marketing, and Sales
• Comfort using AI tools to accelerate analysis, streamline workflows, and enhance productivity in product discovery and delivery.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with distributed databases or large-scale data systems.
• Familiarity with SQL standards and database internals (query planning, optimization, or session/connection management)
• Experience supporting developers migrating applications across different databases or platforms

The Team

Reporting to Michael Wang - Director of PM, Database Platform 

Michael is responsible for many of the core database experiences, including deploying and operating the database, distributing data, running sql queries, scalability and resilience to failure. Michael joined in 2020 and has worked across nearly all aspects of the database. He is excited to continue working on what he believes is a truly industry-transforming database technology. When not at work, Michael enjoys trying out new recipes in the kitchen, hiking, biking, skiing, generally being outdoors with his wife and two kids in Utah, and cheering on his favorite sports teams.

Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at accessibility@cockroachlabs.com.

Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with Roachers that are local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week. While we’ve learned valuable lessons working remotely, nothing can replace the connection, creativity, and fun that occurs when Roachers get together and we are committed to fostering a workplace that encourages collaboration and allows us all to do our best work.

Benefits

• Stock Options
• Medical Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Professional Development Funds
• Flexible Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Sick Days
• Paid Parental Leave
• Retirement Benefits
• Mental Wellbeing Benefits
• And more!