Senior Product Manager

Summary: Duties & Responsibilities: Job Description Senior Product Manager – AIOps & Agentic AI (Telecom) Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India | Function: Product Management | Level: Senior Individual Contributor (IC4 / SPM equivalent) About the Role VIAVI Solutions is at the forefront of AI-driven network intelligence, powering the next generation of telecom operations through its NITRO AIOps platform — a full-stack, domain-agnostic intelligence and automation framework serving Tier-1 and Tier-2 operators globally. We are hiring a Senior Product Manager – AIOps & Agentic AI based in Chennai to own the product definition, backlog strategy, and go-to-market alignment for our AI/ML and Agentic AI capabilities within the NITRO L8 (AIOps Intelligence Layer) and L9 (Vertical Solutions Layer). This is a high-visibility role sitting at the intersection of network operations intelligence, multi-agent AI orchestration, and operator outcome delivery — working closely with solution architects, R&D, platform engineering, and global field teams. This role reports to the Director of AIOps Solution Architecture (London/global) and operates as the product authority for the India-aligned product development function. What You Will Own Product Strategy & Roadmap Define and maintain the product backlog and 2-quarter rolling roadmap for AIOps Intelligence and Vertical Solutions capabilities across RAN, Core, and Transport domains Translate operator pain points (MTTR reduction, NOC automation, root cause analysis, proactive anomaly detection) into structured product requirements — PRDs, PDDs, and user stories — with clear acceptance criteria and operator-outcome metrics Lead product discovery with global field teams and customers to validate feature hypotheses before R&D commitment Drive feature prioritisation using value-vs-effort frameworks anchored to operator outcomes, not internal capability milestones Agentic AI & AI/ML Product Definition Own the product definition for Agentic AI capabilities: multi-agent orchestration workflows, autonomous remediation pipelines, LLM-assisted root cause analysis, and GenAI interfaces for network operations Define human-in-the-loop validation requirements, guardrails, and trust frameworks for autonomous AI features — particularly in safety-critical network operations contexts Partner with R&D and data science teams to define model evaluation criteria, KPIs, and feedback loops for deployed ML models (anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, traffic forecasting) Maintain awareness of emerging frameworks (LangGraph, CrewAI, Model Context Protocol) and assess applicability to platform capabilities PDD / PRD Authoring & Artifact Quality Produce operator-grade Product Definition Documents (PDDs) and Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) as primary artifacts, anchoring each to a one-year product goal and a release outcome map Ensure full backlog traceability from PRD to sprint-level user story; drive zero-gap traceability as a team standard Champion agentic tooling (e.g., Claude Code, AI-assisted pipelines) as a force multiplier for artifact velocity — with mandatory human validation before any commit Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Alignment Act as the primary product interface between India-based R&D engineering and global solution architecture, PLM, and field teams Run structured sprint reviews, backlog refinement sessions, and roadmap alignment meetings with a globally distributed team Communicate product decisions, trade-offs, and release outcomes clearly to senior technical and commercial stakeholders Provide market intelligence inputs on Indian operator dynamics (Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL/BBNL) to inform localisation and vertical solution priority Go-to-Market Support Author customer-facing product briefs, capability comparisons, and battlecard inputs for AIOps and Agentic AI features Support pre-sales and solution architecture teams with product positioning for Indian operator bids and RFP responses Track competitive landscape across AIOps vendors (Dynatrace, Datadog, IBM Instana, NETSCOUT) and synthesise inputs into roadmap decisions What You Bring Experience 7–12 years of total experience , with a minimum of 4 years in product management (PO or PM) in a B2B technology or telecom domain Demonstrable ownership of AI/ML-powered products from inception to GA release — not just feature contribution Experience working within a global product organisation with distributed engineering and solution architecture stakeholders Prior exposure to telecom operations environments — NOC, OSS, network analytics, or network management — strongly preferred; prior operator-side experience (Jio, Airtel, Vi, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, Amdocs, NetCracker) is a differentiator Technical Literacy (Required) Working knowledge of ML operations concepts : model training pipelines, inference, evaluation metrics, data labelling, and drift monitoring Ability to read and critique API specifications, data schemas, and system architecture diagrams — not required to code, but required to engage meaningfully with engineering at a design level Familiarity with AIOps platform capabilities : event correlation, anomaly detection, root cause analysis, automated remediation, topology mapping Understanding of 5G/LTE network domains at functional level: RAN (gNB, CU/DU split), Core (AMF, SMF, UPF), Transport; sufficient to define domain-specific vertical solutions without requiring constant domain SME support Awareness of agentic AI frameworks and LLM orchestration patterns (RAG, tool use, multi-agent coordination) Technical Literacy (Preferred) Hands-on experience with agentic tooling: Claude Code, LangChain/LangGraph, n8n, or equivalent — even in personal/prototype context Exposure to telemetry and observability stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, gNMI/gRPC streaming telemetry Familiarity with cloud-native deployment patterns: Kubernetes, Helm, containerised microservices Soft Skills & Ways of Working Communicates with precision: produces artifacts that can be handed to engineering without re-interpretation; does not rely on verbal context to carry written requirements Operates with structured autonomy — asks for direction on priorities, not on how to execute Comfortable managing ambiguity in a maturing product function; can define process where none exists Strong stakeholder influence without authority — particularly with senior R&D and architecture counterparts Intellectually honest: surfaces blockers and trade-offs proactively; does not manage upward by omission Qualifications Dimension Requirement Education B.E. / in Computer Science, Electronics & Communication, or related engineering discipline. MBA from a Tier-1 institution (IIM, ISB, XLRI, IIMB) is advantageous but not required. Certifications CSPO, PSPO, or equivalent Product Owner certification preferred. AWS/GCP/Azure cloud practitioner beneficial. Languages Fluent English (written and spoken) — the role involves daily interaction with UK and US-based stakeholders. Tamil working proficiency advantageous for Chennai-based operator engagement. Why This Role Platform breadth: NITRO covers the full network stack (L1–L9); this role owns the AI intelligence and vertical solution layers — not a feature PM role, but a capability platform ownership role Agentic AI at the frontier: VIAVI is actively deploying multi-agent orchestration, LLM-assisted RCA, and autonomous remediation workflows in live operator environments — this role shapes those product decisions India market significance: Chennai is a strategic R&D hub for VIAVI; this hire is part of building a Singapore-Ireland-India delivery model with global product authority Cross-functional influence: The role interfaces directly with global Solution Architecture, PLM, R&D, and field leadership — not a back-office backlog management position Career trajectory: Natural path to Principal PM / Director of Product for the right candidate within 2–3 years as the India team scales Pre-Requisites / Skills / Experience Requirements: