Sr Director, SW Product Management

SiFive•Santa Clara, CA

About The Position

SiFive is seeking a technically strong Senior Director of Software Product Management to define and drive software products and developer experiences that help customers deploy SiFive semiconductor IP for its datacenter compute portfolio. The role translates the needs of hyperscalers, chip designers, software developers, system architects, end customers, and the open-source community into a coherent software strategy. The position works across product management, architecture, engineering, applications, sales, marketing, and external ecosystem partners to make SiFive IP easier to evaluate, integrate, program, validate, and deploy in production systems. The successful candidate understands software development, customer deployment needs, and semiconductor development cycles, including how firmware, toolchains, operating systems, hardware features, and silicon schedules interact. The role owns the software product vision, strategy, roadmap, and release planning; defines requirements for developer and platform software; builds customer and ecosystem understanding; and coordinates delivery across product lines, silicon milestones, reference platforms, and customer programs. It also establishes developer-experience goals and product metrics, supports strategic customer engagements and launches, develops product positioning and technical messaging, and communicates priorities, trade-offs, and risks to executive, technical, and commercial stakeholders. Applicants must complete background and reference checks and provide satisfactory proof of their right to work in the United States. Employment is contingent on authorization to access export-controlled technology or the company’s ability to obtain the necessary export license or approvals. SiFive is an equal opportunity employer and an E-Verify employer; new hires must complete Form I-9.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
At least 10 years of product management, product strategy, or technical program leadership experience, including at least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
Demonstrated experience owning software products for semiconductors, embedded systems, or datacenter infrastructure.
Working knowledge of software development for embedded or systems-level platforms, including firmware, BSPs, device drivers, operating-system enablement, or compiler toolchains.
Proven record of defining and shipping developer-facing products such as SDKs, APIs, or developer tools, and growing their adoption.
Experience managing and developing product managers or equivalent product leaders.
Strong understanding of silicon development lifecycles, including architecture definition, pre-silicon enablement, validation, tape-out, and volume ramp.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical content to executives and customers.
Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
Successful background and reference checks and satisfactory proof of the right to work in the United States.
Authorization to access export-controlled technology, or eligibility for the company to obtain the necessary export license or other approvals.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or MBA.
Experience with datacenter or AI/ML software stacks, such as compilers, runtime libraries, or framework integration.
Experience with cloud or hyperscale customers, including co-development or co-design programs.
Experience launching software for server-class processors, accelerators, or development boards.
Familiarity with software security, supply chain security, secure boot, or firmware update requirements.
Track record of building partner ecosystems and managing software licensing or pricing models.

Responsibilities

Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for software products supporting SiFive’s semiconductor IP and datacenter compute portfolio.
Define requirements for SDKs, toolchains, compilers, debuggers, simulators, firmware, board-support packages, drivers, middleware, operating-system enablement, and developer tools.
Develop a deep understanding of customer workflows, including IP evaluation, SoC integration, software porting, bring-up, validation, performance optimization, and production deployment.
Engage directly with customers, partners, and software developers to identify pain points, validate product concepts, and prioritize improvements.
Translate customer and ecosystem requirements into product requirements, user stories, release plans, and acceptance criteria.
Partner with software, hardware, architecture, applications, and quality teams to deliver integrated hardware-software capabilities.
Own software release planning and coordinate dependencies across product lines, silicon milestones, reference platforms, and customer programs.
Define developer-experience goals for documentation, examples, APIs, installation workflows, support processes, and time to first success.
Establish product metrics, including adoption, active users, build success, issue resolution time, software quality, release predictability, and customer satisfaction.
Collaborate with open-source communities, operating-system projects, toolchain maintainers, cloud providers, and other ecosystem partners as appropriate.
Develop product positioning, competitive differentiation, technical messaging, demonstrations, enablement materials, and launch plans.
Support strategic customer engagements, design wins, evaluations, and production programs.
Communicate roadmap decisions, trade-offs, risks, and priorities to executive, technical, and commercial stakeholders.
Manage and develop product managers or equivalent product leaders.