Category-defining tech. Career-defining work.
Lots of tech companies disrupt. But, many fail when they try to scale. We're different. CockroachDB makes it easier for companies to build and scale apps. This is how and why we're helping some of the most innovative companies on the planet. We tackle problems head-on and focus on solutions that create lasting impact.
Because when our customers win, we all win.
The Role
Cockroach Labs is looking for a Head of Product Marketing to build and lead the PMM function during a pivotal period of growth. CockroachDB is the leading distributed SQL database — trusted by OpenAI, CoreWeave, Netflix, Roblox, and DoorDash for workloads that can't go down. We've achieved significant cost-to-serve reductions (50%+ TCO improvement for key workloads) and are on a path to become the cheapest database at scale while remaining the most resilient.
This is a building role, not a maintaining role. You'll inherit a small, capable team and be responsible for installing the operating model, hiring to scale, and delivering measurable impact on awareness, deal velocity, and win rates. You'll report to the VP of Product and operate as part of a unified Product + PMM + Education organization within R&D.
You Will
- **Rewrite the CockroachDB narrative in customer language. **Today our story is told in database terms. You'll translate it into the language of architects and CIOs: "Your database will never go down. It works everywhere your customers are. And it costs less than what you're running today." You'll develop, test, and enforce this messaging across every channel, ensuring it resonates across personas such as developers, platform engineers, architects, and enterprise buyers, and throughout the full lifecycle from evaluation through adoption to expansion.
- **Win the cost narrative. **CockroachDB has achieved 50%+ TCO reductions with more radical simplifications coming. You'll build TCO models, cost-comparison tools, and campaigns that give Sales a new competitive weapon against Aurora and Oracle.
- **Own the "AI Infrastructure Database" position. **OpenAI, CoreWeave, and other leading AI companies run on CockroachDB for mission-critical operational state. You'll develop and own the narrative that CockroachDB is the operational backbone for AI companies, a genuinely differentiated story no competitor can tell.
- **Make Sales unstoppable. **Build concise, actionable competitive enablement for Aurora, Oracle, and Spanner. Create vertical-specific deal accelerators. Deliver translation training that teaches AEs to sell in business language. Build POC success guides and migration risk-reduction frameworks that accelerate deal cycles.
- **Activate the customer base as an awareness engine. **Turn marquee logos into speaking opportunities, case studies with quantified outcomes, press quotes, and video testimonials. One CTO on stage saying "we chose CockroachDB because our old database couldn't survive a region failure" is worth more than a year of blog posts.
- **Drive decisions with data. **Set and track success metrics such as win rates vs. competitors, pipeline influenced by PMM initiatives, product adoption, content engagement. Use win/loss analysis, competitive intelligence, and attribution data to guide prioritization and measure impact. Iterate when results fall short.
- **Build effective operations. **Install operating rhythms, launch playbooks, enablement cadences, and measurement systems. Define roles, set priorities, and create a culture of execution.
- **Operate as part of a unified R&D organization. **You'll report to the VP of Product and work as a genuine partner to Product Management and Education. PMM attends product planning, knows the roadmap 2 quarters out, and authors a "so what" for every feature that ships. You'll embed PMM early and continuously in the product development lifecycle and scale it as a company-wide capability, not a siloed function.
- **Build analyst relations over time. **Analyst coverage (Gartner, Forrester) is not a day-one priority, but it matters for enterprise credibility. Once the PMM foundation is in place, you'll build this capability to secure favorable positioning in industry evaluations.
The Expectations
By 30–60 days:
- Completed onboarding and immersed in CockroachDB's technology, competitive landscape, and current PMM assets
- Experienced the product firsthand (created clusters, ran workloads)
- Launched listening tour with Sales, Product, Engineering, and key customers
- Audited existing positioning, content, and sales enablement materials to identify gaps and quick wins
By 90 days:
- Completed listening tour and synthesized findings
- Published v1 competitive playbooks for Aurora, Oracle, and Spanner
- Delivered first "translation training" session to Sales team
- Established PMM operating rhythm with Product (weekly syncs, launch process, roadmap integration)
- Established PMM team priorities and OKRs
By 6 months:
- Launched first TCO comparison tool or cost-savings campaign
- Published 2–3 customer case studies with quantified outcomes (at least one with real cost savings)
- Secured 2+ customer speakers for industry events in ICP verticals
- Installed standardized launch playbook used for all product releases
By 12 months:
- Measurable improvement in win rate against primary competitors (tracked via CRM and win/loss analysis)
- Measurable improvement in inbound pipeline quality and "how did you hear about us" attribution
- Sales satisfaction score ≥90% rating PMM support as "valuable"
- AI infrastructure positioning established with at least 2 public customer proof points
- PMM established as a trusted, high-impact function across the company
You Have
Must Have
- ** PMM team builder. **You've scaled PMM operations from at a $50M–$500M ARR enterprise infrastructure or developer tools company. You built the operating model, not just inherited one.
- ** Enterprise infrastructure experience. **You've marketed technical products to developers, architects, CTOs, and CIOs. You're comfortable in the room with deeply technical buyers and can hold your own without being an engineer yourself.
- ** Sales enablement track record. **You've built enablement programs that Sales actually used and that measurably improved win rates or deal velocity. You understand what AEs need in the field, not just what looks good in a slide deck.
- ** Technical-to-business translation ability. **You can take a complex technical capability and express it in language that a CIO acts on. You instinctively rewrite "geo-partitioned leaseholder rebalancing" as "your app is fast everywhere your customers are."
- ** Analytical rigor. **You use data, win/loss analysis, product analytics, pipeline attribution, to inform strategy and measure impact. You're not just a storyteller; you prove what's working and kill what isn't.
- ** Execution discipline. **You ship. You prioritize ruthlessly. You know that with a small team, doing 3 things well beats doing 10 things poorly. You hold yourself and your team to commitments.
- ** Cross-functional operating model experience. **You've operated PMM as a tightly integrated function within Product or R&D. You know how to embed PMMs in product development cycles and build joint deliverables with Education and Sales teams.
Strong Differentiators
- ** Economic modeling comfort. **You can build or direct the creation of TCO comparison tools and cost-savings analyses. You're not intimidated by spreadsheets, pricing models, or ROI calculations.
- ** Cloud displacement experience. **You've marketed against cloud-native default databases (Aurora, DynamoDB, Spanner) and know how to overcome "good enough + already on AWS" inertia.
- ** Category creation experience. **You've defined or redefined a product category at a prior company, not just positioned within an existing one.
- ** AI infrastructure market understanding. **You understand what AI companies need from their infrastructure stack.
- ** Competitive intelligence system builder. **You've built (not just contributed to) a structured competitive intel program with win/loss cadences, battlecards, and sales feedback loops that measurably moved win rates.
Not Required
- ** Database industry experience. **A strong operator can learn the distributed SQL market in 90 days. We'd rather have someone who knows how to build a PMM machine than someone who knows the database market but hasn't built a team.
- **Developer relations or community marketing experience. **Our GTM is sales-led into enterprises. Developer community is not the current growth engine.
The Team
Reporting to Igor Stanko, VP of Product, you will lead the Product Marketing team and serve as a key member of the R&D leadership group. You will work in close partnership with the CMO, CRO, and Product leadership to ensure tight alignment between product innovation and market execution.
Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at accessibility@cockroachlabs.com.
Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with Roachers that are local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week. While we’ve learned valuable lessons working remotely, nothing can replace the connection, creativity, and fun that occurs when Roachers get together and we are committed to fostering a workplace that encourages collaboration and allows us all to do our best work.
Benefits
- Stock Options
- Medical Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Life and Disability Insurance
- Professional Development Funds
- Flexible Time Off
- Paid Holidays
- Paid Sick Days
- Paid Parental Leave
- Retirement Benefits
- Mental Wellbeing Benefits
- And more!
The annual anticipated base salary range for U.S. candidates for this role is listed in USD below. Salary is one component of the Cockroach Labs’ Total Rewards package, which also includes, for each employee: stock options, medical insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, life and disability insurance, funds towards professional development resources, flexible paid time off, 11 paid holidays a year, 10 paid sick days a year, paid parental leave, a 401(k) plan, and wellbeing benefits.
We set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. Actual salaries may vary and fall outside of this range depending on factors such as a candidate’s qualifications, geographic location, skills, experience, and competencies. In addition, we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.
Salaries for candidates outside the U.S. will vary based on local compensation structures.
This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our Careers Page.
Annual Anticipated Base Salary Range (U.S)
$300,000—$330,000 USD