Principal Product Manager, Platform Engineering

Job description

About the team At Zillow Group, our mission is to empower people to unlock life's next chapter. The Platform Engineering team owns the infrastructure every engineer at Zillow builds on, spanning compute and runtime, networking and connectivity, databases, secrets and identity, and the delivery tooling that moves code to production. We are shifting from an infrastructure operations model to platform-as-a-product, replacing ticket queues and manual provisioning with golden paths, self-service, and API-first interfaces so that product teams can focus on business outcomes instead of operational complexity. Increasingly, this platform serves AI agents alongside the engineers directing them. Our self-service paths are evolving to support agent-driven, pipeline-driven, and hybrid workflows, making Platform Engineering foundational to how quickly and safely Zillow can build with AI. About the role As a Principal Product Manager for Platform Engineering, you will own product strategy for the platform capabilities that every engineering team at Zillow depends on. You will define the golden paths teams follow by default, drive adoption and migration onto those paths across thousands of services, and establish the measurement and value model that makes the platform's impact visible to the business. This is the first dedicated product role in the organization. Platform Engineering has already built many of the foundations of a product operating model — customer discovery, written product requirements, and outcome metrics are how these teams work today — with engineering leaders carrying that work alongside running their teams. As a Principal Product Manager, you will raise the ceiling on that practice, partnering with engineering leadership across six teams to deepen discovery, sharpen prioritization, and organize the roadmap around customer problems and value streams rather than infrastructure layers. Your scope spans the full platform surface — though the areas you drive most directly will be shaped by where the leverage is greatest as near-term product needs across the teams stabilize. At this level, you will define the operating model other teams plan and build within, not just execute within it yourself. You Will Get To Own platform strategy across Platform Engineering's portfolio, turning independently run infrastructure roadmaps into a coherent product direction with explicit investment tradeoffs Define the golden paths for how engineers build at Zillow, designing the platform so the supported path is the fastest one and unsupported patterns are difficult to fall into Drive adoption and migration outcomes across teams with no reporting relationship to you, using defaults, deprecation paths, and enablement mechanisms that produce measurable change in how teams build Define how applications and AI agents consume platform capabilities, establishing which self-service paths are agent-driven, which remain deterministic, and where human approval is required Establish how platform success is measured — adoption, onboarding time, satisfaction, and key customer outcomes — and build the underlying value model of what capabilities cost to serve and what they are worth Deepen the product operating model across six engineering teams, partnering with the engineering leaders who carry product responsibility to strengthen discovery, requirements, and outcome definition Partner closely with Data Platform, Developer Experience, and Security teams to keep the internal developer experience coherent and resolve ownership gaps between organizations This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions. In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $178,300.00 - $284,700.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia the standard base pay range for this role is $169,300.00 - $270,500.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside. Who you are 8+ years of product management experience, including substantial time building internal platforms, infrastructure, or developer tooling used by multiple teams across organizational boundaries Experience owning a platform portfolio rather than a single product area — multiple interdependent capabilities with different customers, maturity levels, and lifecycles — and prioritizing across them Strong technical fluency in cloud infrastructure and distributed systems, including compute and container orchestration, networking, databases, identity and secrets, and CI/CD, sufficient to reason about architectural tradeoffs alongside senior engineers rather than gather requirements from them Proven track record driving adoption of platform standards across teams you do not manage, using defaults, deprecation paths, and mechanisms that drove measurable change in behavior Experience leading complex migrations at scale, including the full retirement of the systems they replaced Able to operate in ambiguity and impose structure on complex, cross-functional infrastructure initiatives where scope is undefined and precedent is limited Experience raising the product bar for engineering leaders who carry product responsibility, through coaching, shared standards, and durable artifacts rather than sole ownership Familiarity with designing platform capabilities for AI agents as consumers, including where automated workflows require human approval and how automated paths are verified Clear, structured communicator who can hold a coherent platform narrative across engineering, adjacent platform teams, and executive stakeholders Here at Zillow, we value the experience and perspective of candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. We encourage you to apply if you have transferable skills or related experiences. Get to know us At Zillow, we’re reimagining how people move—through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., we help people navigate buying, selling, financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether you're working in tech, sales, operations, or design, you’ll be part of a company reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality. How we work is a key part of that transformation. Through Cloud HQ, our strategic approach to distributed work, most employees have the flexibility to work from wherever they’re most productive—enabling us to move fast, stay connected and deliver on our people promise. Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the U.S. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2026, and included on TIME’s America’s Best Companies 2026 list , reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow. No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry—and your career—forward, together. Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law. Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.