Principal Kubernetes Cost & Observability Product Lead

Introduction At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM’s product and technology landscape. Here, you’ll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world. Your role and responsibilities As a Technical Product Manager for Cloudability Containers and Kubecost, you will define and drive the strategy for Kubernetes cost management, optimization, and observability capabilities across both SaaS and self-hosted offerings. This role requires strong hands‑on Kubernetes technical expertise, close partnership with engineering, and the ability to translate complex platform and infrastructure challenges into customer‑facing product capabilities. Your primary responsibilities will include: Drive Kubernetes Product Strategy: Own the vision, roadmap, and prioritization for Cloudability Containers and Kubecost, aligning customer needs, market trends, and technical platform investments. Partner Deeply with Engineering: Work closely with engineering teams on Kubernetes‑native architectures, scalability, telemetry pipelines, cost allocation models, and optimization workflows. Balance feature delivery with platform reliability, scalability, and technical debt reduction. Act as Technical Product Owner: Serve as the day‑to‑day product owner for engineering teams, defining detailed requirements, acceptance criteria, and release scope for highly technical Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure features. Develop Deep Customer and Market Understanding: Engage directly with enterprise customers, platform engineers, FinOps practitioners, and cloud‑native operators to understand challenges related to Kubernetes cost visibility, GPU utilization, resource optimization, multi‑cluster operations, and cloud infrastructure governance. Guide Technical Product Differentiation: Conduct competitive analysis and technical benchmarking across Kubernetes cost management, observability, and optimization tooling to ensure strong market differentiation. Translate Complex Technical Concepts into Product Outcomes: Work across engineering, design, customer success, and go‑to‑market teams to translate Kubernetes platform capabilities into clear customer value and scalable product experiences. Support Customer and Field Engagements: Partner with sales engineering and customer teams to support strategic customer discussions, technical roadmap conversations, and complex Kubernetes deployment scenarios. Required technical and professional expertise Required Professional and Technical Expertise Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, cloud‑native infrastructure, and containerized environments. Experience working closely with engineering teams on highly technical infrastructure or platform products. Demonstrated experience managing technical SaaS and/or self‑hosted enterprise products. Deep understanding of Kubernetes concepts including clusters, namespaces, workloads, resource management, scaling, and observability. Experience building and managing product roadmaps for technical platform products. Ability to translate complex customer and infrastructure challenges into actionable product requirements. Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, cost management, FinOps, or observability ecosystems. Experience balancing customer needs, technical constraints, scalability, and platform investments. Strong communication skills with the ability to engage technical stakeholders, enterprise customers, and executive leadership. Preferred technical and professional experience Preferred Professional and Technical Expertise Experience with Kubernetes cost management, observability, optimization, or platform engineering products. Familiarity with Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, cloud billing systems, or Kubernetes telemetry pipelines. Experience working with enterprise Kubernetes deployments across AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud. Background in cloud infrastructure, DevOps, SRE, platform engineering, or distributed systems. Prior software engineering or highly technical infrastructure experience. Familiarity with FinOps practices and cloud cost governance strategies. Experience supporting both SaaS and self‑hosted enterprise software offerings. IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status. #J-18808-Ljbffr IBM Computing