What are the responsibilities and job description for the VP, Product Management — API and AI Security position at Harness?
Harness is led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, founder of AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco for $3.7B). The company has raised ~$240M in Series E venture funding, is valued at $5.5B, and backed by top investors including Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Google Ventures, J.P. Morgan, Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, ServiceNow, Splunk Ventures and more. Harness is building the industry’s leading AI-powered software delivery platform, enabling teams worldwide to build, test, and deliver software faster, safer, and more reliably. Writing code is only 30–40% of the engineering lifecycle — the rest involves testing, deployments, security, compliance, and optimization. Harness brings AI and automation to this outer loop, turning complex, time-consuming workflows into streamlined processes at massive global scale.
The platform includes industry leading products in CI/CD, Feature Flags, Cloud Cost Management, Service Reliability, Chaos Engineering, Software Engineering Insights, Internal Developer Experience, and API discovery, observability, governance, and runtime protection. Over the past year, Harness powered 128M deployments, 81M builds, 1.2T API calls protected, and $1.9B in cloud spend optimized, helping customers like United Airlines and Choice Hotels accelerate releases by up to 75% and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency. With employees in over 25 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI-driven software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster.
Position Summary
Harness is looking for an exceptional, strategic, and technically deep VP of Product Management to lead our API and AI Security product portfolio. In this role, you will define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for how Harness secures modern, distributed applications—from code to production—through intelligent, developer-centric API security solutions.
You will partner closely with Engineering, Security, GTM, and Executive leadership to build category-defining capabilities that help engineering teams discover, protect, and remediate API risks at scale. This is a high-impact leadership role that requires equal parts product vision, technical fluency, and the ability to ship fast in a competitive, fast-evolving domain
About The Role
Product Strategy & Leadership
$300,000—$330,000 USD
Harness In The News
Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers
We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers.
Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.
If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at security@harness.io. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.
The platform includes industry leading products in CI/CD, Feature Flags, Cloud Cost Management, Service Reliability, Chaos Engineering, Software Engineering Insights, Internal Developer Experience, and API discovery, observability, governance, and runtime protection. Over the past year, Harness powered 128M deployments, 81M builds, 1.2T API calls protected, and $1.9B in cloud spend optimized, helping customers like United Airlines and Choice Hotels accelerate releases by up to 75% and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency. With employees in over 25 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI-driven software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster.
Position Summary
Harness is looking for an exceptional, strategic, and technically deep VP of Product Management to lead our API and AI Security product portfolio. In this role, you will define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for how Harness secures modern, distributed applications—from code to production—through intelligent, developer-centric API security solutions.
You will partner closely with Engineering, Security, GTM, and Executive leadership to build category-defining capabilities that help engineering teams discover, protect, and remediate API risks at scale. This is a high-impact leadership role that requires equal parts product vision, technical fluency, and the ability to ship fast in a competitive, fast-evolving domain
About The Role
Product Strategy & Leadership
- Own and articulate the long-term vision and strategy for Harness’ API and AI Security products, aligning with the company’s broader DevSecOps platform strategy.
- Lead and mentor a team of Product Managers across multiple product workstreams.
- Evaluate market shifts, emerging threats, regulatory changes, and customer needs to influence product direction.
- Drive prioritization and product investments across API discovery, runtime protection, risk scoring, posture management, and remediation workflows.
- Build and execute a product roadmap that balances innovation with operational excellence and customer outcomes.
- Partner with Engineering to deliver high-quality, scalable, and performant API security features.
- Define clear KPIs, success metrics, and data-driven signals that guide product decisions.
- Ensure timely, iterative delivery with tight feedback loops with customers and field teams.
- Stay deeply connected to customers—security leaders, platform teams, and developers—to understand evolving API challenges in cloud-native environments.
- Assess competitive landscapes (WAF, RASP, API gateways, API posture management, runtime security tools) and identify areas of differentiation for Harness.
- Work with Design and User Research to ensure a frictionless, developer-first experience.
- Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Field Security to define packaging, pricing, and GTM motions.
- Equip field teams with product enablement, competitive positioning, and use-case-based storytelling.
- Support key customer conversations, executive briefings, and industry events as a thought leader in API security.
- Work across all Harness product lines to ensure consistent security workflows across CI/CD, Feature Flags, SRE/Observability, and IDP products.
- Build connective tissue between engineering, security engineering, platform teams, and GTM organizations.
- Foster a culture of high ownership, customer obsession, and continuous improvement.
- 10 years of product management experience, with at least 5 years in a security, API, cloud, or developer-tooling environment.
- Clear track record of building and shipping security or platform products used by developers or security engineering teams.
- Deep understanding of modern API architectures (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), service mesh, cloud-native infrastructure, and common vulnerabilities (OWASP API Top 10).
- Strong knowledge of the API security ecosystem (API gateways, WAF, RASP, CNAPP, WAAP, runtime security tools).
- Exceptional leadership skills with experience managing and growing product teams.
- Ability to translate complex technical concepts for executives, customers, and cross-functional audiences.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a bias for data-driven decision making.
- Comfortable in high-growth, fast-moving startup environments; thrives in ambiguity and creates clarity.
- Bonus: experience in DevOps, CI/CD, cloud orchestration, or building developer-first products.
- Hybrid from Mountain View, CA
- Competitive salary
- Comprehensive healthcare benefits
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
- Flexible work schedule
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Flexible Time Off and Parental Leave
- Monthly, quarterly, and annual social and team building events
- Monthly internet reimbursement
$300,000—$330,000 USD
Harness In The News
- Accelerating Our Mission to Bring AI to Everything After Code
- Goldman Sachs leads investment in software delivery startup Harness at $5.5 billion valuation
- How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal
- Harness Research Shows AI Visibility Crisis Fueling Security Nightmare
- Harness has been named to the Inc. Power Partner list for software delivery success
Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers
We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers.
Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.
If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at security@harness.io. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.
Salary : $300,000