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Most companies I've worked for don't distinguish that much between "manager" and "product manager", so maybe that's part of the confusion.

VP of Product

Director of Product

These titles both exist...

Directors of Product and VPs of products are no different than Directors of Software Development and VP of Software Development.

Directors and VPs are on the management hierarchy.

There's a Director of Product and a VP of Product where I work. PMs seem to have a fulfilling and rewarding career path in big tech companies from what I see.

While PM at Microsoft is a slightly (or extremely YMMV) different rôle, a lot of people who are GMa (General Manager) and higher used to be PMs