Product Manager intern, Tanzu Mission Control

The Elevator Pitch: Why will you enjoy this new opportunity?

We are building the next generation of cloud computing. Come join us to define the vision and drive the execution of our Kubernetes management platform.

Product Managers are the CEOs of their products and are responsible for defining, prioritizing, planning and driving the execution of the vision for their product lines. We possess an eye for business as well as engineering wherewithal in order to be able to strategize, drive and bring their product to market. We work extensively with customers while working cross functionally with Product Marketing, Engineering, Sales, Corporate Marketing and Alliance Partners in order to successfully prioritize features and develop the products that our customers need.

The Tanzu Mission Control team at VMware is seeking a Product Manager Intern to help define product strategy and advance our mission to make Kubernetes accessible to any enterprise. We work at the leading edge of cloud computing capabilities and are focused on helping customers more easily manage Kubernetes and operate modern, containerized applications across multiple clouds and clusters. You will help in defining compelling and competitively differentiated capabilities, understanding our market and customers deeply, and collaborating with engineers and other Product Managers to identify new investment opportunities. The team is a fast-paced, startup-like environment where you will have the opportunity to help build this new business from the ground up while developing skills in cutting-edge technologies. Our product is growing rapidly in many directions, and you will have the opportunity to work on projects that are both compelling to you and valuable to our business.

Success in the Role: What are the performance outcomes you will work toward completing?

• In your first 2 weeks, you will come up to speed on our Kubernetes management platform (Tanzu Mission Control). You’ll also start to get to know stakeholders and collaborators – critical to get your job done well.
• By week 3 – you will be working with your manager and mentor to define the scope of your project work. You will be researching the technologies, product, and market areas relevant to your project.
• For the remainder of your internship, you will learn and apply product management principles in pursuit of the outcomes defined in your project scope. This could include holding conversations with customers, working with engineers, designers, sales, and marketing teams to continue learning and testing your hypotheses, and writing documents that help define our future product development (e.g. product requirements, product strategy, competitive analysis, pricing or go-to-market strategy).
• At the end of your internship, you will have a readout with PM leaders and seasoned PMs in the organization. This is your opportunity to showcase the work you have done. The key deliverable here is typically a readout of a document you have written (e.g. a feature strategy document), or a presentation of the outcomes from your project.

The Work: What type of work will you be doing? What assignments, requirements, or skills will you be performing on a regular basis?

• The essence of a product manager is to gather customer and business requirements, define a product strategy, and create a prioritized set of requirements for Engineering and other parts of the organization to use to deliver a solution to customers. Success is measured by the customer adoption of your solution.
• To achieve this, you will meet with customers and sales teams to understand their needs and pain points, as well as with colleagues across the company to understand their plans and how we can collaborate for customer success.
• As we work with a range of leading-edge technologies, you will be continuously learning the latest developments in cloud computing and contributing to refining our product strategy.
• You will collaborate with engineers, designers, and other product managers to identify opportunities for new products, features, or improvements.
• For your proposals to be understood and approved, excellent written and verbal communication is essential, whether discussing with internal colleagues, up the management chain, or discussing with customers for feedback and validation.

Your typical key duties and responsibilities may include:

• Define requirements for new feature development.
• Drive the strategy and roadmap for a feature or product segment.
• Conduct market analysis and identify growth opportunities.
• Collaborate with engineers to remove impediments to feature development.
• Collaborate with other product teams to ensure alignment and identify opportunities for integrations.
• Collaborate with other product manager to manage feature backlogs and plan releases.
• Collaborate with designers to define the ideal user experience for a feature.
• Conduct meetings with customers and sales engineers to identify customer pain points that can be translated into product requirements.

Key Qualifications and Requirements

• Current MBA student (or M.S. student with proven business acumen).
• Prior experience in product management, tech startup, product marketing, tech consulting, tech strategy, software engineering, or enterprise software technology.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills across varying teams and functions, and ability to present to large audiences.
• Ability to quickly and proactively grasp new technologies and articulate their business value.

Additional Preferred Skills

• You’re enthusiastic about working in a new line of business that is evolving and growing quickly.
• Experience with decision making and driving towards an outcome in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment.
• Ability to handle several concurrent activities with attention to detail.
• Ability to influence people at all levels across a broad variety of job functions
• Additional experience with any of the following will serve you well: defining product features in a complex technical context, prioritizing product features, entrepreneurial or startup experience, datacenter knowledge, app development knowledge, software engineering, technical marketing, technical consulting, SaaS product delivery.

What is the leadership like for this role? What is the structure and culture of the team like?

The hiring manager for this role is Eryn, Director of Product Management – Tanzu Mission Control. Eryn has led the Tanzu Mission Control product team since she joined VMware as part of the Heptio acquisition. Product Managers in Eryn’s team take full ownership of their feature areas and have joined the team from a variety of backgrounds such as engineering, sales, marketing and consulting.

Our team works remotely and is distributed across the United States, India, and England, with the majority working remotely from Seattle and San Francisco Bay Area.

The team culture is one of respect, continuous learning, and collaboration. We sit within a larger PM team in the Modern Applications & Management business group.

Where is this role located?

Remote: The location of this role is flexible within the United States and the team operates on a remote-first basis. There may be opportunities to meet other team members in person depending on timing and location. You can elect to work out of a VMware office location if there is one in your city and that is your preference.

What are the benefits and perks of working at VMware?

You will be supported with a competitive and comprehensive benefits package. Below are some of our full-time highlights, or you can view the complete intern benefits package by visiting Intern benefits

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Medical Coverage, Retirement, and Parental Leave Plans for All Family Types
• Generous Time Off Programs
• 40 hours of paid time to volunteer in your community
• Rethink's Neurodiversity program to support parents raising children with learning or behavior challenges, or developmental disabilities
• Financial contributions to your ongoing development (conference participation, trainings, course work, etc.)
• Wellness reimbursement and online fitness and wellbeing classes

This job may require the candidate to comply with travel restrictions and/or work from a facility that requires full vaccination prior to entry. Further, depending on various factors, including legal challenges to the Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, VMware may require employees to be fully vaccinated effective January 18, 2022.

Category : University and Recent Grads
Subcategory: Internships
Experience: Internship
Full Time/ Part Time: Full Time
Posted Date: 2022-01-23

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