Senior Product Manager
Viavi Solutions · Chennai
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. / B.Tech 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: