Product Manager, Aperture

About Tailscale

Tailscale is making safe connection effortless by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We're building a future for the Internet that's easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be.

Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we're backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital.

We are seeking a talented and motivated full-time Product Manager, Aperture to help shape the product strategy for Tailscale's AI gateway. Aperture gives organizations visibility and control over how their teams use AI. It routes and secures LLM traffic through Tailscale's identity layer instead of distributing API keys, so security and platform teams can see who's using which models, enforce usage policy, and eliminate key sprawl.

You’ll be the first dedicated PM on this team, working directly with our co‑founder and working alongside a small, AI‑native engineering team to take Aperture from its current early‑stage footing into a core part of how Tailscale's customers adopt AI safely. This is a foundational role: you'll bring product rigor and customer focus to a team that’s moved fast and proven real demand, and you'll have outsized influence over what Aperture becomes as it matures.

• Shape Aperture's product roadmap, in close partnership with our co‑founder, Engineering Manager and the engineering team, translating a fast‑moving, still‑forming product area into clear priorities.
• Work directly with reference/design‑partner customers to translate their AI governance and security needs into concrete product requirements.
• Partner with engineering to balance rapid prototyping with the production rigor required for an AI product customers depend on during their daily work.
• Represent Aperture externally ‑ to customers, partners, and the community ‑ as a credible voice on AI governance and enterprise AI adoption.
• Track and report on adoption, usage, and the metrics that matter for a product still establishing product‑market fit.
• Partner with GTM and Customer Success as Aperture moves toward defined pricing and a repeatable sales motion.

• 3‑5 years of product management experience (can include experience in other technical customer facing roles, e.g. SE or FDE), including meaningful time in an early‑stage or 0‑to‑1 product context
• Comfort with ambiguity and fast, shifting priorities — this is a small team still defining its own scope.
• Experience building products for technical buyers (IT, security, or platform teams), since Aperture's customers are CISOs, platform engineers, and IT admins.
• Strong technical fluency — able to work credibly with engineers building in Go and go deep on identity, security, and AI‑agent workflows.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to represent the product externally.

• Prior product experience in AI/LLM infrastructure, developer tools, or identity/security products.
• Familiarity with the AI gateway landscape (e.g., LiteLLM, Portkey, Kong AI Gateway, Cloudflare AI Gateway) and how Aperture's identity‑based approach differs.
• Experience partnering with GTM to bring a nascent product category to a defined pricing and sales motion.
• Public technical writing, conference talks, or community engagement.
• Hands‑on experience with Tailscale, at work or at home.

As a company, we strive to maintain fair and equitable compensation practices within our team across all roles and all levels. Tailscale's compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive…