Staff Product Marketing Manager, Developer Experience

Cockroach Labs•New York, NY

7d•$158,000 - $208,900•Hybrid

About The Position

CockroachDB is a category-defining tech company that makes it easier for companies to build and scale applications. This role is for a Staff Product Marketing Manager who will own the 'Onboard & Build' stage of the customer lifecycle, focusing on the initial experience of developers interacting with CockroachDB. This is a senior, high-ownership role within the Product Marketing & DevRel team, closely integrated with the R&D organization. The position involves shaping the product roadmap and developing the strategy, messaging, and enablement for developer adoption, with a particular focus on AI-native patterns and the evolving role of coding agents in database selection. The role requires a deep understanding of the developer journey from initial curiosity to production deployment, encompassing activation, collaboration, data onboarding, enablement, developer experiences, and extensibility. The specific user journeys to be owned are: Activation to Collaboration (how developers and their agents discover, evaluate, and choose CockroachDB), Data Onboarding & Enablement (migration and onboarding to production, including AI Migration Assistant and MOLT tooling), Developer Experiences (quickstarts, docs, sample apps), and Programmability & Extensibility (interfaces, integrations, and capabilities that make CockroachDB a platform). The expectations for the role include a deep dive into the product and journeys in the first 30 days, developing a clear point of view and shipping initial deliverables by 60 days, and owning the full 'Onboard & Build' narrative with active field enablement and roadmap input by 90 days.

Requirements

8+ years in product marketing, with a proven track record of owning positioning, messaging, and launches for technical products (ideally databases, developer tools, data infrastructure, or cloud platforms). Staff-level experience is preferred, but exceptional senior candidates will be considered.
Genuine technical fluency: Ability to engage in meaningful conversations with developers and PMs about distributed systems, databases, and software development, and translate these into accurate and compelling messaging.
Fluency in the AI-native developer world: Understanding of how developers build with LLMs and agents (RAG, vector search, agent memory, MCP, agent-driven workflows) and the ability to credibly position data infrastructure within this context.
A clear, opinionated point of view: Possess a strong PMM perspective, supported by evidence, and be willing to constructively challenge weak positioning.
Sharp technical storytelling: Ability to translate technical capabilities into meaningful benefits for the developer, focusing on improving their experience.
Bias for decision-ready output: Produce concise, high-quality work under deadlines, flag decisions clearly, and work efficiently when direction is established.
Cross-functional gravity: Ability to build trust with PMs, engineers, sales, and DevRel, and integrate their perspectives to enhance the overall narrative.

Nice To Haves

Senior candidates with exceptional depth will be considered for the Staff level role.

Responsibilities

Positioning & messaging for the stage: Build the message house for 'Onboard & Build', including value propositions, proof points, and narrative that encourage developer adoption and retention. Ensure all four journeys align with a coherent story and broader company positioning.
Launch & GTM execution: Own Product Marketing Management (PMM) deliverables for launches impacting the owned journeys, including messaging, enablement, content, and field readiness, aligned with the Go-To-Market (GTM) plan.
Field & sales enablement: Equip the sales and field teams with the necessary tools to effectively communicate the onboarding and developer story, including first-call decks, objection handling, competitive framing, and pitch materials, in partnership with the enablement team.
The AI-native adoption story: Own the narrative around the agentic era at this stage, focusing on agent-driven discovery, agents as a primary audience, and positioning CockroachDB as the platform for developers and their agents. Translate this positioning into tangible proof.
Cross-functional partnership: Collaborate closely with Product Managers for each journey, DevRel, documentation teams, and demand generation to translate product features into market messaging and to feed developer insights back into the product roadmap.
Proof and content: Drive the creation of case studies, reference stories, and technical content that validate the onboarding and build story, grounding it in actual customer outcomes.