Product Owner & Engineer

Description VAST Data is looking for a passionate and detail-oriented Product Owner & Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will collaborate closely with development teams to define new features, contribute to functional requirement documentation (FRD), and ensure seamless UX design and implementation. A core part of this role is maintaining close alignment with customers. You will actively engage with customers, gather feedback, understand real-world use cases, and translate their needs into clear product requirements. You will work closely with Support and QA to ensure our testing strategy and supportability reflect actual customer environments and workflows. Beyond core development, you will assist in critical escalations, manage complex or high-visibility installations, and develop tools that enhance the overall user experience. You will leverage telemetry data, production insights, and direct customer feedback to continuously refine and improve our products, ensuring they deliver measurable value in real-world deployments. Key Responsibilities Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering teams to define, refine, and prioritize features that directly address real customer needs and business impact. Translate customer requirements and field insights into clear, structured Functional Requirement Documents (FRDs), while actively contributing to UX discussions to ensure intuitive and seamless user experiences. Work closely with QA and Support to align testing strategies and troubleshooting workflows with real-world customer environments, ensuring reliability, operability, and supportability at scale. Serve as a technical and product focal point during critical customer escalations and high-visibility deployments, ensuring timely resolution and long-term improvements Develop tools and scripts to enhance user experience and operational efficiency. Leverage telemetry, usage analytics, and direct customer feedback to drive data-informed decisions and continuously improve product performance and adoption. Proactively identify risks, gaps, and cross-team dependencies, removing roadblocks to ensure successful delivery and measurable customer outcomes. Requirements Qualifications & Skills Proven experience in software development, technical product management, or advanced technical support within complex infrastructure environments. Demonstrated experience with storage technologies and protocols such as NFS, S3 (object storage), SMB, and familiarity with enterprise storage architectures and distributed file systems. Strong hands-on experience with Linux, Python, and networking concepts (TCP/IP, routing, switching, large-scale deployments). Ability to analyze and solve complex technical challenges in scale-out Linux environments, HPC workloads, AI training infrastructures, and advanced networking architectures. Experience collaborating across cross-functional teams - Engineering, QA, and Support - using industry-standard tools such as Jira, Slack, GitLab, Git, unit testing frameworks, and QTest. Strong analytical skills with the ability to leverage telemetry, usage data, and customer insights to guide product decisions and prioritize effectively. Experience working with observability and data platforms, including time-series databases (e.g., Prometheus), multi-tenant log aggregation systems, Slack and Salesforce integrations, and AI-driven automation workflows - a strong advantage. Familiarity with scripting and automation using Python, REST APIs, OpenTelemetry (OTEL), and Bash to improve operational efficiency and supportability. Excellent communication skills, with the ability to bridge technical depth and customer-facing clarity. A proactive, customer-first mindset with strong ownership and accountability. Why Join Us? Play a key role in shaping and enhancing innovative product capabilities from concept to production. Work in a highly collaborative environment that values technical excellence, ownership, and deep customer alignment. Lead and contribute to high-visibility initiatives, complex deployments, and critical escalations that directly impact customer success. Drive continuous, data-informed product improvements using real-world telemetry and direct customer feedback. If you’re passionate about solving complex problems, working closely with customers, and influencing product direction through data and engineering excellence - we’d love to hear from you!