Director of Product Management - AI Security & AI Gateway

Versa Networks • Santa Clara, CA

1d • $260,000 - $320,000

About The Position

Versa Networks is seeking a visionary, technical, and execution-oriented Director of Product Management to lead its AI Security and AI Gateway portfolio. The role defines the vision, roadmap, architecture, and commercial strategy for helping global enterprises discover, protect, optimize, and govern Generative AI models and Agentic AI workflows. The portfolio includes Gen-AI Firewalls and AI Gateways, AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM), Agentic Bill of Materials (ABOM), and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server security, integrated into Versa’s unified SASE/SSE architecture.

The Director owns product strategy and lifecycle from ideation and requirements through product experience definition, launch, general availability, adoption, and telemetry feedback. The role also leads product capabilities for runtime defense, shadow AI discovery and governance, enterprise AI traffic and usage management, AI security posture, agentic security and identity, MCP security, and AI token-cost observability. The Director is responsible for packaging, pricing, and go-to-market strategy, and partners with Product Marketing, Sales Engineering, Global Sales, and Product leadership on enablement and customer programs.

As Versa’s public champion for AI Security and Governance, the Director represents the company at industry conferences, engages analysts and standards bodies, and publishes thought leadership. The position is located in Santa Clara, California. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. The stated pay range at commencement for California, Washington, or New York City is $260,000 to $320,000, with specific compensation dependent on factors including skills, training, location, experience, education, certifications, and organizational needs.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of total product management experience in enterprise cybersecurity, cloud security, SASE/SSE, network security, or API gateway/management products.
• At least 3 years of dedicated leadership in AI/ML security, Generative AI applications, AI governance, or modern developer/API infrastructure.
• Deep understanding of LLM fundamentals, inference architectures, vector databases, RAG pipelines, prompt manipulation vectors, and agentic protocols such as LangChain/LangGraph, AutoGen, and MCP.
• Strong working knowledge of network security primitives, including Layer 7 proxies, TLS interception/inspection, CASB, DLP, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
• Demonstrated track record building and scaling enterprise security or networking products from zero to one and scaling multi-million-dollar ARR product lines.
• Proven experience establishing SaaS/cloud pricing, packaging, and consumption-based monetization, such as token-based, request-based, or user-tier licensing.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and stage presentation skills, including a track record of speaking at technical conferences, delivering keynotes, and briefing C-level executives.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity, or an equivalent technical field.
• Authorization to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree (MS, PhD, or MBA).
• Active involvement with industry frameworks and initiatives such as OWASP Top 10 for LLMs, NIST AI RMF, MITRE ATLAS, or open-source agent ecosystems.
• Prior experience designing and launching high-throughput, low-latency API proxy gateways or reverse proxies.
• Hands-on familiarity with agentic security paradigms, agent authentication and authorization frameworks, and emerging protocols such as Anthropic’s MCP.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the multi-year vision, product roadmap, and strategy for Versa’s AI Security and AI Gateway portfolio.
• Translate market shifts, emerging threats, and LLM and agent architecture changes into differentiated capabilities integrated into Versa’s unified SASE/SSE architecture.
• Lead the product lifecycle from ideation, requirements collection, use-case definition, and product experience definition with UX through launch, GA, customer adoption, and telemetry feedback.
• Build inline Gen-AI Firewall and runtime defenses against prompt injection, jailbreaking, data poisoning, system prompt leakage, denial of service, and other adversarial LLM threats.
• Deliver Prompt Guard and guardrail architectures integrated into network traffic paths governed by Versa.
• Develop enterprise-wide visibility and controls for AI adoption, including detection of unsanctioned models, external web Gen-AI applications, and hidden API calls.
• Build policy-driven governance frameworks for compliance with regulations and standards including the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, HIPAA, and GDPR.
• Lead development of an enterprise AI Gateway with traffic steering, rate limiting, and routing based on application, data classification, geography, model choice, and cost efficiency.
• Manage AI Gateway latency, fallback strategies, multi-model redundancy, and local-versus-cloud inference routing.
• Establish continuous auditing, vulnerability management, and misconfiguration detection across enterprise AI pipelines, model weights, data stores, and inference endpoints.
• Develop security primitives for autonomous AI agents, including Agentic Identity and Agent Bill of Materials (ABOM).
• Secure autonomous workflows, runtime permissions, inter-agent communications, and Agentic Verbo implementations.
• Architect security and governance for MCP servers, including transport, tooling, and data access layers between LLMs and external systems.
• Deliver AI FinOps capabilities for token-consumption tracking, cost attribution, budget enforcement, cache optimization, and quota management.
• Own business modeling, SKU design, packaging, and monetization strategies for AI Security and AI Gateway add-ons and standalone offerings, in collaboration with Product leadership.
• Partner with Product Marketing, Sales Engineering, and Global Sales to develop battlecards, technical collateral, white papers, demo environments, and sales enablement modules.
• Act as executive sponsor for key customer proofs of concept, design partner programs, and strategic beta rollouts.
• Represent Versa as an external authority and public spokesperson for AI Security and Governance at industry conferences.
• Publish thought leadership, participate in standards bodies, and engage industry analysts including Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package and pre-IPO equity.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Paid time off, including vacation days, sick leave, and paid holidays.
• Flexible work environment with remote and hybrid options.
• Access to training, certifications, and educational resources for professional development.
• Employee recognition programs and awards.
• Parental leave policies.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director