Product Manager, Tailscale-Native Apps

Tailscale

39d•$177,000 - $221,000•Remote

About The Position

Tailscale is seeking a Product Manager to lead the development of Tailscale-native applications, which are software solutions with Tailscale connectivity and identity integrated from the beginning. This role will focus on TSNet, a Go library for embedding Tailscale into applications, the tailscale-rs SDK family (including C++, Python, and Elixir), the tailscale CLI for automation, and the core Tailscale client library. The goal is to simplify the process for developers to embed Tailscale into their products, making it a seamless and standard outcome. Currently, this experience is engineering-led with some friction in the developer journey, including API handling, onboarding, and documentation. The Product Manager will own this entire journey, defining the golden paths, reference patterns, APIs, and developer experience to ensure a smooth integration process. This role reports to the VP Product and collaborates with engineering teams, internal product teams, and external partners.

Requirements

6+ years in product management, or a software engineering background moving into product, with 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, and lived with the consequences of your design choices — naming, defaults, error behavior, versioning
Can read Go and/or Rust and hold a credible technical conversation about API and SDK design
Has taste in developer experience: opinions about API ergonomics, docs, error messages, and getting-started flows, with examples to back them up
Does customer research the way developer products require it — reading GitHub issues, lurking in Discord, running office hours, and finding the pattern in the noise
Turns ambiguous scope into shipped increments, closes the loop after launch, and keeps teams informed along the way

Nice To Haves

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
Enough networking, zero-trust, or VPN familiarity to understand what embedding Tailscale does for a developer
Experience designing CLIs or scripting surfaces for platform and SRE teams
Public technical writing, talks, OSS contributions, or developer-tooling side projects
LLMs and coding agents as part of your daily product workflow

Responsibilities

Own the roadmap for the native apps experience: TSNet, tailscale-rs, and the tailscale CLI
Define what "Tailscale-native application" means — the reference architectures, golden paths, and embedding patterns, packaged as docs, examples, and sample apps developers can build from
Own the developer experience end to end: the on-ramp from blog post to running embedded node, API ergonomics, error messages, docs that work, examples that compile, and upgrade paths that don't burn early adopters
Set the Rust SDK family strategy: which TSNet capabilities to port, which to skip, in what order, and how to position the library to developers.
Treat the CLI as a product in its own right: scripting ergonomics, output conventions, automation surfaces, and the experience for platform and SRE teams running tailscale in CI and infrastructure-as-code
Run the internal dogfood loop. Aperture and Tailscale PAM are built on these primitives; make those teams your most demanding customers and turn their friction into roadmap.
Partner with GTM and Customer Success on embedding deals — AI platforms, developer tools, and infrastructure software shipping Tailscale inside their products — and let what you learn set priorities
Engage developers where they live (GitHub issues, Discord, office hours) and build a coherent picture of what embedded developers need

Benefits

Base salary
Equity incentive plan
Variable commission (for quota-based roles)
Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period (health, vision, dental, etc. for you and your family)
Remote first company with corporate co-working program access
Employer-funded retirement contributions (dollar-for-dollar match up to 0.75% of eligible compensation)
Annual company retreat, team off-sites, and support for in-person collaboration
$1500 USD annually for professional development
Mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities
Flexible, paid time off program
Build-your-own home office setup (company-owned laptop, monthly home internet reimbursement, $500 USD for workstation customization)
Paid parental leave program (20 weeks for birthing parents, 16 weeks for non-birthing parents)