Senior Product Manager, Platform Engineering

Here at Appian, our values of Intensity and Excellence define who we are. We set high standards and live up to them, ensuring that everything we do is done with care and quality. We approach every challenge with ambition and commitment, holding ourselves and each other accountable to achieve the best results. When you join Appian, you’ll be part of a passionate team dedicated to accomplishing hard things, together.

You will be the product manager working on the mission to strengthen our self-managed distribution of Appian by analyzing trends in customer use cases, prioritizing the delivery of essential features and enhancements, and driving adoption of Appian on Kubernetes. You will be responsible for the direction and roadmap of the Appian on Kubernetes offering, ensuring reliable, high-performance operations for customers running Appian in their own managed environments.

This role emphasizes a connection to the customer. You will form relationships with key points of contact within our customers' organizations and must be equally comfortable conversing with deeply technical IT staff and executives alike. You will use your prior experience with deploying and managing containerized software in Kubernetes environments to explain to customers how Appian on Kubernetes adheres to cloud-native principles and meets enterprise-grade requirements. Likewise, you will use your deep domain knowledge to understand and analyze customer-provided use cases and enhancement requests to judge suitability for the future product backlog.

This role is based at our ​​headquartered in ​McLean, Virginia. Appian was built on a culture of in-person collaboration, which we believe is a key driver of our mission to be the best. Employees hired for this position are expected to be in the office 5 days a week to foster that culture and ensure we continue to thrive through shared ideas and teamwork. We believe being in the office provides more opportunities to come together and celebrate working with the exceptional people across Appian.

What You'll Do

• Define and execute the product roadmap for Appian on Kubernetes.

• Prioritize product investments based on customer feedback, business impact, and technical strategy.

• Partner closely with Engineering to define requirements, refine backlog priorities, and guide implementation.

• Collaborate with architects and engineers to design scalable, cloud-native platform capabilities.

• Establish clear product boundaries between customer-managed infrastructure and Appian-managed functionality.

• Write detailed product requirements and specifications for engineering teams.

• Track feature adoption and success through customer feedback, product metrics, and usage analytics.

• Own the product lifecycle from ideation through documentation, launch, and ongoing enhancements.

• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success to support go-to-market initiatives and product positioning.

• Build strong relationships with enterprise customers to understand complex deployment challenges and influence future product direction.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Product Management or Software Engineering within an enterprise software organization.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.

• Experience managing products supporting both SaaS and customer-managed deployments.

• Strong understanding of cloud-native technologies and Kubernetes.

• Experience working with containerized applications throughout the deployment and operational lifecycle.

• Knowledge of enterprise infrastructure concepts including scalability, availability, resiliency, and security.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for both technical and executive audiences.

• Experience partnering directly with enterprise customers to influence product strategy.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Kubernetes platforms such as Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, Google GKE, Red Hat OpenShift, Rancher, or VMware Kubernetes Service.

• Experience building or supporting Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs).

• Familiarity with software deployments in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments.

• Understanding of enterprise data sovereignty and regulatory requirements, including frameworks such as DORA.

• Experience supporting customers in highly regulated industries, including government, financial services, healthcare, or life sciences.

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The base salary range represents a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant work experience, qualifications, internal peer equity, and market and business conditions that exist when extending an offer. A discretionary bonus may be awarded in recognition of individual and company performance.

In addition, Appian provides generous benefits offerings that include a 401(k) plan with company match, flexible time off, paid parental leave, medical, dental, and vision plans, life insurance, disability insurance, wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, health savings account contributions, an employee referral bonus program, and learning and development resources. Certain positions may be eligible for equity awards.

Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation, commission, bonus, or benefit plans.

Base Salary Range

$125,000—$250,000 USD

Tools and Resources

• Training and Development: During onboarding, we focus on equipping new hires with the skills and knowledge for success through department-specific training. Continuous learning is a central focus at Appian, with dedicated mentorship and the First-Friend program being widely utilized resources for new hires.

• Growth Opportunities: Appian provides a diverse array of growth and development opportunities, including our leadership program tailored for new and aspiring managers, a comprehensive library of specialized department training through Appian University, skills based training, and tuition reimbursement for those aiming to advance their education. This commitment ensures that employees have access to a holistic range of development opportunities.

• Community: We’ll immerse you into our community rooted in respect starting on day one. Appian fosters inclusivity through our 8 employee-led affinity groups. These groups help employees build stronger internal and external networks by planning social, educational, and outreach activities to connect with Appianites and larger initiatives throughout the company.

Benefits

Appian offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and financial future. Benefits may include health coverage, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free mental health support, life and disability insurance, an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), a retirement/pension plan, wellness dollars, tuition reimbursement, family-forming benefits and more. Benefits vary by country—please ask your Talent Acquisition contact for details specific to the location you are applying to.

About Appian

Appian provides AI automation for the most important business processes at the world’s largest organizations. Our platform is known for its unique power, reliability, and scale. We’ve been automating processes for more than 25 years and have proven expertise in enterprise operations. For more information, visit appian.com.

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Appian is an equal opportunity employer that strives to attract and retain the best talent. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Appian provides reasonable accommodations to applicants in accordance with all applicable laws. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at ReasonableAccommodations@appian.com. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

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