Sr Director, Strategy & Operations
San Jose, California, United States; Morrisville, North Carolina, United States; United States
Overview
At NetApp, our High Achievement Principles shape how we work: we innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel as a team. We have a history of helping customers turn challenges into business opportunities. As part of our sales organization, your role will require a strategic blend of technical acumen and charismatic client engagement, ensuring that every partnership is nurtured towards its maximum potential. As a pivotal link between NetApp and our clients, your contributions will directly influence the growth and direction of our department, making a lasting impact on the organization's success. This is more than a job—it's a chance to be part of a team that values innovation, supports professional growth, and celebrates shared victories.
Success profile
Ready to be an engineer at NetApp? Explore the traits that can help you thrive.
- Analytical
- Adaptable
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- Detail-oriented
- Quick-thinking
- Problem solver
Responsibilities
San Jose, California, United States; Morrisville, North Carolina, United States; United States Job category: Engineering Job ID: 135920-en_USOwn Every Moment at NetApp
At NetApp, your ideas power innovation. We lead in intelligent data infrastructure—delivering unified storage, integrated data services, and solutions that help organizations unlock the full potential of their data, from AI to multicloud.
Ready to innovate and contribute to our path to $10B? Here, you'll collaborate with passionate teams, tackle real-world challenges, and see your impact in how customers transform and grow. If you're ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and drive to every moment, NetApp is where your journey begins. Join teams that innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel together across every function.
Job Summary
The Chief Product Officer sets the direction for a multi-billion-dollar portfolio spanning data infrastructure, storage, cloud, and AI. This leader is the strategy partner who makes that direction concrete: sharpening the portfolio point of view, exposing where it is under-invested or exposed, and converting ambiguous market and financial signals into the specific bets the organization should place. It carries no product P&L of its own. Its influence comes from the rigor of its analysis and the trust of the CPO staff whose products it helps steer. This role reports into the VP of Growth, Analytics & AI Native Engineering.
The mandate is to maximize the return on the portfolio's investment. This includes partnering with Product leadership to shape product portfolio investment priorities, combining market, customer, financial, and product insights with NetApp's cost, ROI, and investment models to identify the highest-value opportunities and recommend resource allocation shifts. This leader identifies and evaluates material capability gaps and shapes perspective on build, buy, or partner recommendations—with clear economic, strategic, and time-to-value tradeoffs—to inform CPO staff investment decisions. When acquisition is the preferred path, the role develops the product-side strategic rationale and business case, partnering with Corporate Development and Finance on evaluation and investment recommendations for CPO staff to validate.
When a deal closes, the same leader co-owns with the CPO’s Leadership Team the product-side integration, working through the teams that will inherit the asset to fold in the roadmap, rationalize overlap, and convert promised synergies into realized growth. This Senior Director builds and leads a high-performing team spanning product strategy, growth analysis, market intelligence, portfolio planning, strategic initiatives, and integration management, and is measured on one thing above all: whether the portfolio's bets, organic and inorganic, become durable revenue and margin.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the CPO's strategy partner, turning portfolio direction into a sharp, evidence-based point of view on where the organization should invest, hold, or exit.
- Expose the portfolio's gaps, overlaps, and white space, and guide the organization toward the bets with the clearest path to revenue and margin.
- Shape portfolio investment priorities in partnership with Product Leadership, leveraging NetApp's cost, ROI, and product-investment models to make the case for moving resources to their highest-return use.
- Evaluate material capability gaps with Product leadership and develop build, buy, or partner recommendations, making the strategic, economic, and time-to-value implications explicit for the product owners’ investment decisions.
- Own the upstream corporate-development agenda from the product side, from acquisition thesis and target landscape through qualification and the business case built with Corporate Development and Finance and validated with CPO staff.
- Lead diligence through the product and technical lens, testing whether a target's capability, architecture, and economics deliver the thesis before capital is committed.
- Own product-side integration of acquired businesses, working through the inheriting teams to merge roadmaps, rationalize overlapping products and platforms, and hold the line on synergy realization.
- Develop and institutionalize product acquisition and integration playbooks that tailor integration plans to the type of acquisition, accelerating time-to-value, reducing execution risk, and improving ROI.Build, lead, and develop a high-caliber team of strategy, growth, and integration leaders who influence through insight, analytical rigor, and trusted partnership across Product, Engineering, Corporate Development, Finance, and GTM.
Education and Experience
- 12+ years of experience spanning product strategy, corporate strategy, corporate development partnership, and senior operating leadership roles within enterprise technology.
- Proven success shaping portfolio strategy, driving business and portfolio transformation, and influencing enterprise investment decisions through data-driven insight and executive partnership; Combined experience across top-tier consulting and operating in-house within a scaled technology company preferred.
- Experience leading inorganic growth initiatives, including acquisition strategy, diligence, integration, and value realization; product-side integration expertise strongly preferred.
- Deep fluency in technology business economics, portfolio investment, capital allocation, and growth strategy, combined with technical credibility across data infrastructure, cloud, and AI.
- A proven people leader and executive communicator, able to build a high-caliber team and to move senior stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Finance, Corporate Development, and GTM without relying on formal authority, and to operate with conviction as evidence and direction evolve.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Business,or a related field required; MBA preferred.
Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 266,050 - 396,000 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.
At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.
Why You'll Thrive at NetApp
At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.
NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.
Our culture
We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.
If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.
Submitting an Application
To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.
AI Disclosure
For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.
Our values
Put the customer at the center. Care for each other and our communities. Think and act like owners. Build belonging every day. Embrace a growth mindset.
Benefits
Volunteer time off
40 hours of paid volunteer time each year.
Well-being
Employee Assistance Program, fitness, and mental health resources to help employees be their best.
Time away
Paid time off for vacation and to recharge.
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Equal Opportunity Employer*
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status and any other protected classification. We pledge to take every reasonable step to ensure that our applicants and employees are respected, treated fairly and with dignity. See the EEO poster, Know your rights poster, and NetApp EEO policy. NetApp makes reasonable accommodations, consistent with applicable laws, for religious purposes and for the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant or employee with a disability, who can perform the essential job functions unless undue hardship would result.
State-specific postings/notices to applicants regarding contract compliance can be found here in English and here in Spanish, and fair employment practice information can be found here.
Reasonable Accommodations
At NetApp, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible workplace where individuals with disabilities can thrive. In alignment with our values, NetApp provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments where possible to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities, in accordance with employment rights and regulations relevant to their country of employment, to ensure equal access to employment opportunities and job performance.
Applicants who would like to request an accommodation or adjustment are encouraged to Contact Us. Each request will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with applicable laws and our commitment to equity and belonging within our culture, values and business practices. Requests will be handled confidentially and respectfully, and we will work collaboratively to identify effective solutions.
- For reasonable accommodations in Germany, click here.
- For reasonable accommodations in France, click here.
- For reasonable accommodations in The Netherlands, click here.
Please note that we do not accept unsolicited resumes to the above email address.
Data privacy
We care about your privacy and, therefore, ask that you read our Candidate Privacy Notice before you submit any personal information to us.
NetApp does not carry out any solely automated decision making (i.e. the process of making a decision by automated means without any human involvement) in determining your suitability or eligibility for specific roles.
However, the processing of your personal information is carried out with the aid of manual and automated tools. In particular, NetApp may use an automated employment evaluation tool or similar tool as one of several tools, actions, and/or steps to assist with NetApp’s review of candidate applications for various hiring needs.
Currently, when addressing certain hiring needs, NetApp uses the following tools:
- Eightfold (eightfold.ai): This tool can provide an initial ranking of a candidate’s skills and experience, based on information provided by the applicant in the application and/or supporting documentation, in comparison to the NetApp designated key requirements of a specific role. Additionally, the tool may be used to help review and/or rank internal employees seeking promotion or other internal mobility. An independent audit of the Eightfold Matching Model tool can be found at https://eightfold.ai/nyc-eightfoldmatching-model.
- Findem (findem.ai): This tool is used to help identify candidates whose skills and experience may be relevant to open roles at NetApp, using publicly available professional information. Findem may also be used to assist with candidate matching, AI-assisted screening, and recruitment communications.
Our talent acquisition team or our recruiters will ultimately select the candidates for further consideration, following human review of any automated evaluation results and associated underlying documentation (or lack thereof) submitted with the candidates’ application.
Candidates may request an alternative selection process which will not be subject to the Eightfold matching tool or to any electronic automated employment evaluation by contacting NetApp at careers@netapp.com. To bypass the Eightfold matching tool or any electronic automated employment evaluation, you must include a resume and job ID with your email to careers@netapp.com and you must include in the subject line of your email: Data Privacy Request. Candidates who have questions or want to request additional information on the source of data, type of data, and/or collection of data related to the candidate review process should contact NetApp at careers@netapp.com
Note: Eightfold is not applicable to temporary hiring opportunities. If you are interested in temporary roles, you can apply via a third-party site managed by our preferred supplier, Magnit Global. Magnit Global will provide its own privacy disclosures for your review as part of the application process.
Submitting an application
To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team reviews apcplications submitted through our company website only. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.
AI Disclosure
For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use AI-powered tools to assist with tasks such as identifying relevant candidates, matching skills and experience to role requirements, and conducting initial screenings. These tools support - rather than replace - human decision-making. To learn more, please see our AI Transparency Statement. If you would prefer not to engage with an AI-assisted process, you can request an alternative by contacting careers@netapp.com. Choosing an alternative process will not impact your candidacy in any way.