Staff Product Manager, Core Primitives

Temporal Technologies

5h•Remote

About The Position

Temporal is an open source programming model that can simplify code, make applications more reliable, and help developers focus on the important things like delivering features faster. We are on a mission to be the reliable foundation of every developer’s toolbox, and are building the team that will make that happen. Our values guide us —they are present in how we show up, make decisions, and work together to make an impact. We’re curious, driven, collaborative, genuine and humble. Temporal is growing and we are looking for those who share our values, challenge 'standard' thinking, and want to influence our future. If you have a passion for improving the developer experience, building world-class open-source software and communities, and want to be a part of our amazing team, we'd love to hear from you! Temporal is the durable execution platform that lets developers write code that survives any failure. Thousands of companies run mission-critical applications on Temporal - from payment processing to AI agent orchestration. We're hiring a Staff Product Manager to own the core primitives: the building blocks developers use to express durable patterns. You'll own Workflows, Activities, Timers, Signals & Updates, Child Workflows, Schedules, Batch, and Nexus connectivity. Over time, scope expands to include Solutions implementation. Jessica (portfolio lead) provides portfolio direction. You frame problems and generate strategy for your area - deciding what expands, what stays maintenance-mode, and how primitives connect into a coherent platform story.

Requirements

8+ years of product management experience, with significant time on platform, infrastructure, or developer-facing products
Track record of generating area-level strategy - framing the problem space, making bets, connecting investments into a thesis. Strong execution on individual features isn't sufficient signal for this role
You've defined what a platform area becomes, not just shipped what was on the roadmap
You can hold a coherent vision across multiple primitives that ship on different timelines to different language ecosystems
You've driven complex cross-team delivery - shipping features across multiple SDKs or client libraries, coordinating without direct authority
You can go deep on technical behavior - you understand the difference between a timeout and a cancellation, and why it matters for the developer
You're rigorous about customer evidence - you don't prioritize based on intuition when data exists
You've partnered with engineering leadership, not just engineering teams - you influence technical direction, not just product requirements

Nice To Haves

Experience with workflow engines, orchestration platforms, or durable execution
You've worked on cross-language or cross-platform products
Familiarity with the competitive landscape: Restate, Inngest, Durable Objects, Step Functions
You've personally built or contributed to distributed systems

Responsibilities

Generate the area strategy that connects primitives, connectivity, and composition into a coherent thesis - what expands, why, and how investments compound
Frame the problem space and make bets - which primitives need investment, which are mature, and where the next leverage point is
Drive 1-pagers and PRDs for primitive improvements and new capabilities
Own cross-SDK delivery for each primitive - coordinate with SDK teams to ensure consistent behavior across Go, Java, TypeScript, Python, and .NET
Run customer validation - identify who's hitting primitive gaps, gather evidence, and use it to prioritize
Drive primitive correctness - defaults, error messages, silent failures, cancellation, timeouts
Act as domain lead for the primitives area; could take on Senior PMs as the area matures
Partner with engineering leadership to shape technical direction, not just product requirements
Represent the primitives perspective in product-staff reviews and company-level planning

Benefits

Unlimited PTO
12 Holidays + 2 Floating Holidays
100% Premiums Coverage for Medical, Dental, and Vision
AD&D, LT & ST Disability, and Life Insurance (Standard & Supplemental Available)
Empower 401K Plan
Additional Perks for Learning & Development, Lifestyle Spending, In-Home Office Setup, Professional Memberships, WFH Meals, Internet Stipend and more!
Paid Time Off (PTO) and Benefits outside the United States vary by country, and are issued in partnership with Remote.com.
Perks to all international employees for learning & career development, a lifestyle spending account, in-home office setup (in addition to company-issued hardware), professional memberships, work-from-home meals, and access to the Calm app for mental wellness.
$3,600 / Year Work from Home Meals
$1,800 / Year Professional Enrichment (Career Development & Professional Memberships)
$1,200 / Year Lifestyle Spending Account
$1,000 / Year In-Home Office Setup (In addition to Temporal issued equipment - laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and extension power cable at no cost to you)
$74 / Month Reimbursement for Internet
Calm App Subscription for Mental Health & Wellness