Staff Technical Product Manager, Runtimes

Fastly•New York, NY

15h•$211,370 - $253,644•Hybrid

About The Position

The internet is being reshaped by AI, automation, and machine traffic. One of the defining infrastructure questions of the next decade is how and where code runs. This role owns Fastly's answer. As a Staff Technical Product Manager on Fastly's Core Infrastructure Product Management team, you will manage Compute and VCL as a single, coherent runtime surface. These are how customers execute code close to their users, origins, APIs, and security enforcement points. You will define where these runtimes converge, where they stay purpose-built, and what primitives they share, turning a set of powerful execution models into one platform customers can understand, adopt, and trust for production workloads. This role reports to the Director of Core Infrastructure Product Management and has real latitude to set the runtime direction of the platform. We're looking for someone who pairs a builder's bias for shipping with the judgment to take strong, well-reasoned positions on the runtime future of Fastly.

Requirements

8+ years in product management or technical product leadership, ideally on infrastructure, platform, or developer-facing products.
Runtime and systems fluency: deep understanding of execution environments, including runtimes, containers, isolation models, serverless or edge compute, and the trade-offs between them. You can reason credibly about how code executes, where the constraints live, and why one model beats another for a given workload.
Execution focus: a demonstrated bias for shipping. You are hands-on and comfortable owning outcomes in ambiguous, fast-moving conditions rather than waiting for perfect clarity.
Conviction and influence: a proven ability to form strong technical opinions, defend them with evidence, and lead without authority, including pushing back constructively. You are a force multiplier who raises the technical bar around you.
Communication and presence: a clear, confident communicator who can move fluidly between deep technical discussion with engineers and crisp strategic framing for executives and customers.
Customer empathy: genuine curiosity about the "why" behind customer problems, and the ability to translate runtime capabilities into developer productivity and business value.

Nice To Haves

Startup or 0-to-1 experience building and shipping technical products in resource-constrained environments.
A hands-on background with runtime and isolation technology, including container platforms, the WebAssembly component model and WASI 0.3, Firecracker or comparable microVM and sandboxing stacks, or similar execution engines.
Experience with edge compute, developer platforms, or runtime interoperability at scale.

Responsibilities

Own the runtime surface end-to-end: define and drive the strategy and roadmap for Fastly's runtimes, including Compute and VCL. Define where they converge, where they remain purpose-built, and what primitives they should share. You will own runtime and interoperability strategy and reduce duplicated abstractions so the platform feels like one.
Scale Compute for demanding workloads: enhance Compute as a runtime and platform surface – the primitives, predictable limits, and reliability customers depend on as they run larger and more critical workloads. Keep the runtime behaving as intended under real-world conditions.
Expand the runtime surface: bring new execution models onto Fastly as native runtime workloads, defining how they run on the platform and fit alongside Compute and VCL.
Define how runtimes meet the AI era: AI workloads, machine traffic, and new execution patterns are changing what customers need from a runtime platform. You will get ahead of that shift, building the primitives and controls customers will need before they know to ask for them.
Take and defend strong positions: bring clear, evidence-based points of view on runtime direction and drive them to a decision across Engineering, Product, and leadership. You will build alignment without relying on authority.
Execute across boundaries: partner closely with the Core Infrastructure technical lead on runtime direction, with go-to-market functions so customers can adopt what you build, and with the hybrid/on-prem team where runtimes extend into customer-controlled environments. You will bring structure to ambiguous problems and move decisions forward earlier.