Director of Product, Ecosystem

Posted 3 Days Ago
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San Jose, CA, USA
In-Office
243K-297K Annually
Expert/Leader
Artificial Intelligence • Hardware • Machine Learning • Natural Language Processing • Software • Generative AI
SambaNova is the #1 platform for business AI.
The Role
Leads ecosystem strategy for SambaNova’s AI accelerator products across networking, inference serving, storage, caching, prefill, CPU offload, and compiler systems. Defines build-versus-partner decisions, owns reference architectures and certification programs, drives co-optimization with software and model partners, and converts ecosystem relationships into deployments, demand, and revenue. The role also leads external positioning, analyst engagement, executive scorecards, and cross-functional execution with engineering, product strategy, marketing, and partners.
Summary Generated by Built In

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for enterprises, AI labs, service providers, neo-clouds, and sovereign AI initiatives worldwide. SambaStack combines rack-scale hardware, optimized open-source models, and a serving platform to enable customers to deploy state-of-the-art models with superior performance, lower total cost of ownership, and rapid time to value. Built on SambaNova’s Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU), its dataflow architecture delivers low-latency, high-throughput inference on large models, with industry-leading decode performance that is especially impactful for agentic workloads such as multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications.

Responsibilities

SambaNova is hiring a Director of Product, Ecosystem to shape ecosystem strategy for our core products across scale-out networking, inference serving, storage and caching, prefill compute, agentic CPU offload, and compiler and RDU research: defining which integrations to pursue, how we position them, and how partners deploy them. Customers deploy RDU in token factories alongside other vendors' hardware and software. This role will define how RDU fits across the stack, drive the reference architectures and certifications that partners build on, and turn those integrations into customer demand. It’s an opportunity to shape how SambaNova fits into the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem and set the partner strategy that domain product managers and engineering teams execute against. This individual will be responsible for:

Ecosystem strategy
  • Define where RDU integrates into each customer segment's token factory: prefill compute, caching storage, scale-out networking, and agentic CPU offload alongside RDU decode.
  • Make explicit build, partner, or ignore decisions for each integration area, write down the reasoning, and revisit it quarterly.
  • Anchor positioning on decode economics: tokens per second per user, cost per million tokens, and latency tiers.
  • Maintain a versioned ecosystem map with a changelog.
Partner enablement
  • Publish joint reference architectures for each integration area, with defined integration points next to RDU decode.
  • Own certification of RDU against the common cloud-native stack: Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, and managed-stack vendors.
  • Ship operators, metrics exporters, dashboards, and integration documentation as maintained products rather than one-off deliverables.
  • Treat enablement as complete only when a cloud provider or partner can deploy from the reference architecture without SambaNova engineering support.
Core software ecosystem
  • Secure and deliver co-optimization work with inference-engine builders (vLLM, SGLang, llm-d) and system-software optimizers so their runtimes run efficiently on RDU.
  • Represent SambaNova in PyTorch and MLIR community work.
  • Connect SambaNova's compiler and RDU research to the external ecosystem so programmability improvements reach the frameworks and toolchains partners build on.
  • Support co-engineering with model partners so flagship open models run fastest on RDU.
Demand conversion
  • Run joint go-to-market with token-factory partners where the buyer and the data center are shared.
  • Own the analyst relationships with Marketing: supply benchmark data to SemiAnalysis and Artificial Analysis and co-develop token-factory reference guidance so buyers' TCO models reflect RDU's decode advantage.
  • Feed partner and integration signal into product bets and competitive intelligence, in partnership with the Product Strategy and Competitive Intelligence lead.
Positioning and education
  • Own external positioning for the core product surface: how networking, serving, storage, prefill, and offload fit together in a token factory.
  • Produce internal educational content on the ecosystem for SambaNova teams.
  • Deliver a quarterly ecosystem scorecard to the executive team: partner deployments, reference architectures shipped, benchmark results, and partner-attached pipeline.
How We Measure This Role

We measure this role by partner deployments and partner-attached pipeline. MOUs, press releases, and announced logos do not count until the partner has deployed.

Basic Qualifications
  • 10+ years in AI infrastructure, accelerators, or data center systems, including 8+ years in product management with direct ownership of ecosystem, platform, or partner-facing product.
  • Shipped partner-facing product artifacts (reference architectures, certification programs, or integration surfaces) that external teams adopted.
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
Additional Required Qualifications
  • Working fluency across scale-out networking, inference serving, storage and caching, prefill and decode disaggregation, CPU offload, and compiler toolchains, with depth in at least two.
  • Track record of converting partnerships into measurable deployments, demand, or revenue.
  • Fluency in inference economics: cost per million tokens, tokens per second per user, and latency and throughput tradeoffs by workload.
  • Comfortable owning a strategy that other organizations execute. Technical depth in both network fabric topologies and inference serving stacks.
  • Concise, quantified written communication for executive audiences.
Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience at both a silicon or systems vendor (for example, the CUDA, ROCm, or oneAPI ecosystems, or an inference accelerator startup) and at a model lab or inference provider.
  • Has closed and delivered at least one co-optimization engagement with a model provider.
  • Contributions to, or close working relationships with, the vLLM, SGLang, llm-d, PyTorch, or MLIR communities.
  • Exposure to hardware sales cycles: racks, data center constraints (power, cooling, density), and financing-backed deals.
  • Has run joint go-to-market with networking, storage, or compute vendors that share a common buyer.

Base Salary Range:

Base Pay Range
$243,000$297,000 USD

Submission Guidelines
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified. 

EEO Policy
SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions
SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.

Skills Required

  • 10+ years of experience in AI infrastructure, accelerators, or data center systems
  • 8+ years of product management experience with direct ownership of ecosystem, platform, or partner-facing products
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience
  • Experience shipping partner-facing product artifacts such as reference architectures, certification programs, or integration surfaces adopted by external teams
  • Working fluency across scale-out networking, inference serving, storage and caching, prefill and decode disaggregation, CPU offload, and compiler toolchains, with depth in at least two areas
  • Track record of converting partnerships into measurable deployments, demand, or revenue
  • Fluency in inference economics, including cost per million tokens, tokens per second per user, latency, and throughput tradeoffs
  • Technical depth in network fabric topologies and inference serving stacks
  • Ability to own a strategy executed by other organizations
  • Concise, quantified written communication for executive audiences
  • Experience at both a silicon or systems vendor and a model lab or inference provider
  • Experience closing and delivering a co-optimization engagement with a model provider
  • Contributions to or close working relationships with vLLM, SGLang, llm-d, PyTorch, or MLIR communities
  • Exposure to hardware sales cycles, including racks, data center power, cooling, density, and financing-backed deals
  • Experience running joint go-to-market with networking, storage, or compute vendors sharing a common buyer
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The Company
HQ: Palo Alto, CA
500 Employees
Year Founded: 2017

What We Do

AI is changing the world and at SambaNova, we believe that you don’t need unlimited resources to take advantage of the most advanced, valuable AI capabilities - capabilities that are helping organizations explore the universe, find cures for cancer, and giving companies access to insights that provide a competitive edge. We deliver the world’s fastest and only complete AI solution for enterprises and governments with world-record inference performance and accuracy. Powered by the SambaNova SN40L Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU), organizations can build a technology backbone for the next decade of AI innovation with SambaNova Suite. Our fully integrated hardware-software system, DataScale®, enables organizations to train, fine-tune, and deploy the most demanding AI workloads using the largest and most challenging models. Most recently, with the launch of our newest offering, SambaNova Cloud, developers can supercharge AI-powered applications on Llama 3.2 models. SambaNova was founded in 2017 in Palo Alto, California, by a group of industry luminaries, business leaders, and world-class innovators who understand AI. Today, we’ve built an incredibly smart and motivated team dedicated to making a lasting impact on the industry and equipping our customers to thrive in the new era of AI.

Why Work With Us

As a talent first company, we aim to hire the greatest and most innovative minds in the industry- driving the next generation of AI computing where no barrier is too high and the possibilities are truly limitless. We encourage our peers to take risks and take the initiative to make a lasting impact on the AI and ML industries.

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