Ryan Nienhuis

Doer
DISC Type : sd

Senior Staff Product Manager at Databricks

Seattle, Washington, United States

Overview

Ryan Nienhuis is the Senior Staff Product Manager leading Databricks streaming engine. His expertise is in real-time data, honed during his time at AWS leading product and engineering for services like Apache Flink and Kinesis. Colleagues describe him as smart and capable. He earned his BS from Virginia Tech.

Outside of his direct product work, Ryan maintains a keen interest in the broader data and technology landscape. He follows industry trends and developments from key publications and companies in the data streaming space, such as The Economist and Confluent.

He is a frequent speaker at major data conferences like Flink Forward and AWS re: Invent, and has co-authored multiple publications on stream processing and analytics.

Personality Overview

Deliberate Doer

Long-term Focused

Strategic Planner

Reading between the lines and seeing beyond your words comes naturally to them.  They might take some time to make their mind up but once they do, they don't change it easily. They are very professional in their approach and can weigh multiple perspectives together.

Topics They Care About

Stream Processing
This is his core expertise, leading streaming products at Databricks and previously managing Amazon Kinesis and the Managed Service for Apache Flink at AWS.
Apache Flink
He has deep experience with Flink, having led the Amazon Managed Service for it and presented on Flink-related topics at multiple Flink Forward conferences.
Data Source Integration
He recently co-authored the announcement for Databricks' generally available Python Data Source API, simplifying custom data connectivity for developers in PySpark.

Media Appearances

Ryan Nienhuis - Data + AI Summit 2025 - Databricks. Featured in Databricks (Data + AI Summit)

See Now

Work History

7-2023
Senior Staff Product Manager at Databricks
4-2021 - 6-2023
Sr. Manager, Product and Engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
9-2019 - 4-2021
Principal Product Manager - External Services at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
12-2014 - 8-2019
Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
8-2011 - 11-2013
Senior Consultant at Deloitte

Education

2003 - 2008
BS from Virginia Tech

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 17 Location : Seattle, Washington, United States Job Level : Middle Designation : Senior Staff Product Manager at Databricks
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Insights For Selling To Ryan

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Come across as a trustworthy professional and be respectful, they usually know their game
  • Stick to your standard pitch and qualifying script, don't try to wing it
  • You can spend time on BANT (or other qualification methodology) but keep it to the point

DONT's

  • Don't take their patience for granted, avoid long-winding sermons
  • Don't get into pricing discussions early on, steer conversation towards proven results
  • Don't go over them unless you are left with no other option

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Ryan is

  • Strong proof of impact and their conviction will matter the most, but they wouldn't want to act unilaterally either
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Ryan

  • They will say no if they are not convinced but you will have to prompt them.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Ryan move?

  • They will want to understand things well but can move fast once they have a clear picture.
  • Can Ryan take some risk or not?

  • They have good risk tolerance but are likely to think it through once or twice.

You And Ryan

Personality Compatibility


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