OverviewJob Description
DDN Horizon is DDN's AI orchestration control plane — the platform that turns raw GPU and storage infrastructure into a self-service, hyperscaler-grade AI-as-a-Service experience. Horizon serves NeoCloud Providers, sovereign AI and national-cloud operators, and large enterprises standing up internal AI infrastructure. The product is deliverable as SaaS, fully on-premises, or in air-gapped configurations at price parity, and spans the complete AI lifecycle from bare metal and Kubernetes through managed inferencing and industry-specific AI pipelines.
Horizon is in active buildout across a multi-phase roadmap, with revenue engagements already in motion and general availability scheduled for calendar Q2 2026. This is one of the most strategic product bets at DDN and will materially shape the company's next decade.
The Principal Product Lead is a senior individual contributor who will partner directly with the Product Lead for DDN Horizon as the second leadership-level product owner on the program. This is a breadth-and-depth role: you will carry material ownership across the entire Horizon lifecycle, from the current pre-GA go-to-market motion through the multi-year roadmap, and will operate as a trusted peer to functional leaders across DDN.
You will be the connective tissue across sales, finance, engineering, marketing, customer success, services, and operations — translating strategy into executable product decisions, resolving cross-functional friction, and representing the Horizon product with partners, analysts, and strategic customers. This role is designed for a seasoned product leader who is motivated by impact rather than headcount, and who is energized by the opportunity to build a category-defining platform alongside a small senior team.
Key Responsibilities
- Co-own the Horizon product strategy, roadmap, and phased delivery plan (current release through multi-year vision), and represent product direction across executive, board, and partner forums.
- Drive the end-to-end go-to-market execution for Horizon in partnership with sales, sales engineering, marketing, and services — including pricing and packaging, segmentation, positioning, enablement, and deal support for strategic opportunities.
- Own cross-functional program orchestration across engineering, operations, support, customer success, and finance; anticipate dependencies, surface tradeoffs, and drive decisions on the critical path to each release and revenue milestone.
- Define and evolve the operational model for Horizon as a recurring-revenue service, including delivery, support escalation, usage metering, billing integration, true-up processes, and the service-level framework across SaaS and on-premises deployments.
- Lead partner and ecosystem engagement at the product level — including ongoing technology partnerships, co-selling relationships, and analyst interactions — and represent DDN in strategic customer conversations up to CxO level.
- Shape the requirements and success criteria for each Horizon phase in tight collaboration with engineering architecture; convert ambiguous strategic objectives into crisp PRDs, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes.
- Bring a structured voice of the customer into the roadmap by synthesizing input from design partners, early-access customers, and field teams, and by directly engaging reference accounts across regulated and sovereign segments.
- Partner with marketing on positioning, messaging, and launch moments; serve as an executive-credible spokesperson for Horizon in external-facing settings where appropriate.
- Operate as a thought partner to the Product Lead and to cross-functional executives — challenge assumptions, offer independent judgment, and raise the strategic caliber of the broader Horizon program.
Required Qualifications
- 20+ years of progressive product management experience, with a substantial portion in senior or principal-level roles driving enterprise infrastructure, cloud services, or platform products.
- Demonstrated track record of taking a SaaS or cloud service from concept through general availability and into scaled commercial operation — ideally including both multi-tenant hosted and customer-deployed modes.
- Deep experience across hybrid and cloud-native infrastructure: Kubernetes, multi-tenancy, identity and access management, observability, and recurring-revenue commercial models.
- Proven ability to operate fluidly across the full commercial surface of a product — pricing, packaging, sales enablement, deal structure, analyst relations, partner management, and executive-level customer engagement.
- Exceptional cross-functional leadership: a consistent history of building durable partnerships with engineering, sales, finance, marketing, and operations counterparts, and of earning trust quickly across a large, distributed organization.
- Strong commercial judgment — comfort with business model design, unit economics, margin structure, and the tradeoffs between short-term revenue capture and long-term platform positioning.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; can write the executive brief, the PRD, and the customer-ready narrative with equal fluency.
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant technical or business discipline, or equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience delivering services for regulated or mission-oriented buyers (public sector, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, research computing, or equivalent), including familiarity with air-gapped, on-premises, and sovereign deployment patterns.
- Prior exposure to AI/ML infrastructure, data protection and cyber-resilience services, or other data-intensive platform categories.
- Background supporting channel, OEM, or alliance-led go-to-market motions, and comfort representing the product to partner CxOs.
- Experience building or scaling a new product line inside a larger storage, infrastructure, or cloud company — navigating the cultural and operational transition from hardware-centric to service-centric business models.
- MBA or advanced degree welcomed but not required.
What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months
- Horizon reaches GA on plan, with a go-to-market operating model that is crisp, repeatable, and understood across sales, services, and operations.
- A set of flagship customers across NCP, sovereign, and enterprise segments are live, reference-able, and contributing to pipeline expansion.
- Cross-functional partners across DDN consistently name the Principal Product Lead as a go-to decision partner for anything Horizon-related.
- The Phase 2 and Phase 3 roadmap is resourced, sequenced, and commercially grounded — with a shared narrative that leadership, field, and partners can all repeat.
Why This Role
DDN Horizon is the product that will redefine how DDN is seen in the market: not as a storage vendor, but as the data and AI platform company underneath the next generation of AI infrastructure. This is a rare opportunity to operate at a principal level on a strategic product from the ground floor, with direct visibility to senior leadership and the authority to shape outcomes across the full commercial and technical surface of the platform.
DDN
DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities:
Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives.
Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable.
Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful.
Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.
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