Principal Product Manager
Couchbase · Remote · United States · 13d ago
Couchbase, the operational data platform for AI, empowers businesses to succeed by bringing data to life in new ways. Major market-leading companies rely on Couchbase for mission critical operational, analytical, mobile and AI workloads. Built to replace legacy infrastructure and fragmented data services, Couchbase empowers enterprises with a unified platform architected for performance, flexibility and global scale.
With Couchbase, organizations bring their data to life, launching game‑changing customer experiences, exploring the limitless potential of AI, and seamlessly extending applications from the cloud to the edge and beyond. Couchbase’s AI‑ready technology and enterprise partnership model eliminate complexity and reduce total cost of ownership, enabling teams to stay agile, innovative and secure.
Couchbase believes data should never slow you down, but act as the foundation for your next breakthrough. Discover why Couchbase is trusted to help the world’s biggest players scale, move fast and stay resilient, no matter what’s next on their roadmap. Visit couchbase.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.
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Principal Product Manager, Couchbase Mobile
Location: Remote — US-based
About the Role
Couchbase is hiring a Principal Product Manager to own execution for the Couchbase Mobile portfolio — Couchbase Lite, Sync Gateway / Capella App Services, and Edge Server. This is a mature, widely-adopted portfolio, and this Principal-level role owns the execution rigor — release quality, developer experience, and technical depth of requirements — that keeps it excellent as it grows to support edge and on-device AI use cases.
The portfolio spans a full cloud-to-edge-to-device data layer: Couchbase Lite is the embedded database inside mobile, desktop, and web apps; Sync Gateway and Capella App Services provide self-managed and fully managed sync backends; and Edge Server is our lightweight, resource-constrained edge database for environments. Increasingly, these products also need to support AI-powered applications running at the edge, where data has to stay local, fast, and always available. You'll need a real point of view on how to extend the portfolio, grounded in hands-on technical judgment.
Responsibilities
- Turn product strategy for the Couchbase Mobile portfolio (Couchbase Lite, Sync Gateway, Capella App Services, Edge Server) into a detailed, well-sequenced roadmap, and drive it through to shipped, adopted product with rigor.
- Own end-to-end execution day-to-day: write detailed technical product requirements, partner closely with engineering and design, validate pre-release features hands-on, and contribute to the operational cadence (JIRA, sprint/roadmap reviews, agile ceremonies).
- Bring operational excellence to a mature, multi-product portfolio — tighten release quality, close gaps in documentation and developer experience, and systematically remove friction that's built up across established products.
- Shape how the portfolio supports on-device and edge AI use cases, and turn that into concrete, engineering-ready requirements that keep the mobile/edge products relevant as AI moves to the edge.
- Work directly with customers and prospects to pressure-test use cases and turn them into functional requirements and clear build/don't-build calls.
- Be the first line of product ownership on live customer escalations — working directly with field, sales, and support leadership to unblock accounts, and driving fixes through engineering.
- Act as the portfolio's lead technical evangelist: represent Couchbase Mobile in talks, webinars, technical content, and arm sales, solutions engineering, and marketing with the training and positioning they need.
- Represent the portfolio in cross-org planning with senior leadership — this is leadership through execution excellence and technical depth, not people management.
What You Need
- 8+ years of product management experience, with a track record of driving flawless execution for a mature product or portfolio at scale — distributed systems, databases, or developer platforms strongly preferred.
- In addition to the PM experience above, 3+ years of hands-on software development experience — writing or architecting production applications yourself, not just working alongside engineers who do.
- Demonstrated ability to take an already-successful, mature product and materially improve how well it's executed — release quality, operational rigor, developer experience — not just an ability to conceive new products from scratch.
- A genuine technical/developer background: you've built or architected client-side applications (mobile, desktop, or web) yourself, and you're comfortable prototyping. Fluency in client mobile app technologies (Flutter, KMM etc) is a plus.
- Practical understanding of the concepts behind complex distributed systems — high availability, disaster recovery, security and access control — and how they apply not just to mobile/embedded apps but to server-side sync infrastructure (Sync Gateway, Capella App Services). Familiarity with a public cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
- A working, opinionated understanding of edge computing and AI concepts relevant to on-device and edge inference — and the judgment to turn that into product strategy rather than buzzwords.
- AI-forward in how you work, not just what you ship: you already use AI tools in your own day-to-day PM process (requirements, research, analysis) and push that adoption across the team.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills is a must: equally comfortable in a deep technical design review with engineers and in front of customers, press, or executive leadership.
- Fluency with agile development process and tooling (JIRA or equivalent), and experience operating in a fast-moving, cross-functional org without waiting to be told what to do.
- A high bar for ownership — hard-working, self-directed, and comfortable setting direction under ambiguity and driving alignment across engineering, marketing, and sales without formal authority.
- A strong team player — curious and collaborative, with plenty of good ideas to contribute, and happy to take the time to learn the product and the team.
The anticipated starting base pay range for this role is listed below. Base salary is not the only component of our competitive total rewards package - you may also be eligible for bonus, commissions, and other benefits as described below. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location.
At Couchbase, we believe innovation thrives when diverse perspectives are at the table. We actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds—including women, people of color, LGTBQIA+ professionals, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. If you see a role that excites you, but don’t meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply.
Studies show underrepresented talent is less likely to apply unless they meet all the criteria. We encourage you to apply if you’re excited about the role and can bring strong contributions to our team.
If you require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let your recruiter know—we’re happy to support you.
We value diverse educational and career backgrounds. If your experience aligns with the role’s goals—even if it doesn’t follow a traditional path—we’d love to hear from you.
- Generous Time Off Program - Flexibility to care for you and your family
- Wellness Benefits - A variety of world class medical plans to choose from, along with dental, vision, life insurance, and employee assistance programs*
- Financial Planning - Retirement program* and Business Travel Insurance
- Career Growth - Be valued, Create value approach
- Fun Perks - An ergonomic and comfortable in-office / WFH setup. Food & Snacks for in-office employees.
- And much more!