Director, Product Management – ML Platform

Liftoff is seeking a Director of Product Management, ML Platform to holistically own the product strategy and execution for our machine learning infrastructure. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role at the intersection of deeply technical backend infrastructure and strategic product ownership. You will serve as a player/coach — driving the ML Platform product vision while directly mentoring and developing two PMs on your team.

The ideal candidate is deeply technical, has experience driving the  product strategy of ML infrastructure at scale and able to balance short-term cross-functional support needs with longer-term generational upgrades. You thrive in fast paced environments, can translate complex ML constraints into prioritized roadmaps, work closely with internal stakeholders, and know how to build a strong performing team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the holistic product strategy, vision, and roadmap for the ML Platform, including backend infrastructure required to run ML models at scale and support new model iterations.
• Lead, mentor, and develop two IC Product Managers
• Drive execution of major platform initiatives including batch processing infrastructure, infrastructure cost visibility and R&D strategy, and platform hardening for reliability and uptime.
• Partner closely with multiple ML teams to understand their constraints, dependencies, and requirements, translating them into actionable engineering specifications and prioritized roadmaps.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Finance to set and track infrastructure cost targets, and with Product Managers across adjacent areas to align on shared platform needs.
• Establish and monitor platform KPIs around reliability, cost efficiency, and model enablement, driving continuous improvement.
• Architect and evolve the product function for ML Platform, establishing practices, frameworks, and ways of working that scale with the team.
• Serve as the primary product stakeholder voice for no-fault systems and new model type support, ensuring the platform meets the demands of next-generation ML development.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in product management, with at least 3 years focused on ML infrastructure, backend systems, or data platform products and 2 years of management experience.
• Proven experience as a player/coach: capable of setting strategic direction while remaining hands-on with technical specifications and day-to-day execution.
• Deep technical fluency in ML infrastructure concepts: model training pipelines, feature stores, batch and streaming data systems, and distributed computing.
• Strong stakeholder management skills — ability to gather, synthesize, and prioritize needs across multiple ML and engineering teams with competing priorities.
• Experience collaborating with Finance or business operations teams on infrastructure cost management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to operate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field. Master's preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Experience architecting or significantly influencing the design of ML platform infrastructure.
• Familiarity with no-fault system design and high-availability production environments.
• Experience building or scaling a product management function within a technical domain.