Product Manager, Tailscale-Native Apps

Role Description

We're hiring a Product Manager to own what it's like to build a Tailscale-native application — software with Tailscale connectivity and identity built in from the start. You'd own the original front door to that world:

• TSNet, the Go library that puts a Tailscale node inside an application in a few lines of code
• tailscale-rs, our new Rust-based SDK family (including C++, Python, and Elixir)
• the tailscale CLI powering scripting, automation, and CI
• the core Tailscale client library

Products already get built this way, inside and outside Tailscale:

• Aperture, our AI connectivity gateway
• Tailscale PAM run on these primitives
• LM Studio, NVIDIA, and Namespace.co embed Tailscale directly into their applications

Your job is to make that the normal outcome for thousands of more applications. Today this experience is engineering-led and the developer journey is uneven. You'll own that journey end to end and define, concretely, what it means to build a Tailscale-native application including:

• the golden paths
• the reference patterns
• the APIs
• the developer experience that makes people say "wait, that's all it took?"

You'll report to Ross Kukulinski, VP Product, and work closely with the Rust, Golang, and Clients engineering teams, plus the internal product teams and external partners building Tailscale-Native Applications.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product management, or a software engineering background moving into product
• Real time spent on a developer-facing product: an SDK, API, CLI, library, or developer tool
• Shipped developer-facing features that developers used in production
• Experience reading Go and/or Rust and holding a credible technical conversation about API and SDK design
• Strong opinions about API ergonomics, docs, error messages, and getting-started flows
• Experience conducting customer research through GitHub issues, Discord, and office hours
• Ability to turn ambiguous scope into shipped increments and keep teams informed

Requirements

• Hands-on Go or Rust experience — you've built something real, even as a side project
• Time at a developer platform company with a strong SDK motion (e.g. Stripe, Twilio, Auth0, Vercel, Supabase, HashiCorp)
• Open-source community experience: contributor experience, issue triage, balancing commercial priorities with community needs
• Familiarity with networking, zero-trust, or VPN concepts
• Experience designing CLIs or scripting surfaces for platform and SRE teams
• Public technical writing, talks, OSS contributions, or developer-tooling side projects
• Experience with LLMs and coding agents as part of your daily product workflow

Benefits

• An inclusive, flexible environment where you can be your authentic self
• A competitive total compensation package including base salary, equity, and variable commission
• Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period for health, vision, dental, and more
• Remote first company with opportunities for virtual and in-person social events
• Employer-funded retirement contributions matched dollar-for-dollar up to a maximum annual contribution
• Support for personal and professional development with $1500 USD annually
• Flexible, paid time off program for any situation life throws your way
• Build-your-own home office setup with company-owned laptop and workstation customization
• Paid parental leave program with top-ups for birthing and non-birthing parents