Chief Product & Technology Officer

About Nira Energy

• Nira's mission is to help convert the US power grid to be 100% fossil-free.
• We are profitable!
• Nira is a software platform that helps renewable energy developers find the cheapest points on the grid to connect.
• We focus on estimating the cost to interconnect with the electrical grid (aka the Interconnection Process). Depending on where developers connect, they may be on the hook to pay millions of dollars to upgrade power lines, substations etc.

About The Company

• Our mission is to convert the US power grid to be 100% fossil-free and do our part in combating climate change
• The electric grid is one of the largest bottlenecks standing between us and a clean energy future. Our software helps transmission engineers plan the grid in a faster, more economic, and more reliable manner
• We are the market leader in tranmission software and are currently used by >100 of the most sophisticated engineering teams in the country
• We are on a path to 5x’ing our revenue as we continue to rapidly scale with both our existing customers and into new markets
• We’ve been profitable since inception and have a highly unique financial profile. We aren’t subject to the traditional VC funding cycles and are anticipating material liquidity events for equity owners in the company
• This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a company that is positioned to have a massive impact on climate change, coupled with extremely high financial upside for the leaders that help bring these products to market

About The Role

This role will sit parallel to our co-founder and Chief Transmission Officer, Andrew, who is one of the foremost transmission planners in the industry. Andrew will be responsible for high level product vision and will serve as our SME on where the industry is heading.

The CPTO will be responsible for turning that vision into a sequenced roadmap and leading the team responsible for building those products.

The VP of Software Engineering, VP of Transmission Planning, and our Product Managers will report to the CPTO. For context, the Transmission Planning team works hand in hand with the software engineering team to write the code needed to generate our data. The organization is currently ~17 people with 2 Product Managers, 7 Software Engineers, and 8 Transmission Planners.

Ultimately, the CPTO will be the founders technical operating partner, responsible for translating customer insights into products as we scale to $50M+ ARR.

The ideal candidate is an executive with a strong track record of building high performing teams and world class products. You’ve ideally held a prominent role at an early stage startup, i.e <50 people and $10M in revenue, and can speak to successful product outcomes you’ve led in that capacity. You’ve also ideally held a prominent role at at a company that has scaled, i.e. 50-250 people and >$50M in revenue and can speak to successful product outcomes you’ve led there as well.

What you'll own

• Delivery and execution: You're the single point of accountability for how the product and engineering organization performs against its weekly, quarterly, and annual goals
• Product Decisions: You’ll partner with Andrew to set the product vision / roadmap direction and will ultimately be responsible for ensuring the team is making product decisions that increase revenue and retention
• People Leadership: The VP of Software Engineering, VP of Transmission Planning and the Product Managers will report to you. You’ll be responsible for managing their growth and performance and getting the organization to work as one smooth efficient machine.
• Operating Engine: You’ll be responsible for building the systems, processes and cadences to make product delivery predictable and efficient as we scale

What we're looking for

• A proven track record of building a high performing product team and executive leadership. You have led one or multiple product organizations and former reports regard you as a A+ leader that they’d join again in a heartbeat
• A proven track record of building successful products. You’ve led one or many product initiatives that have delivered material customer value and can speak competently to results; i.e. Built a product from $0 to >$10M in revenue, Improve retention of a product by 30%, scaled a product from $10M to $50M etc
• You are willing to be hands on and get in the weeds. This is a ~17 person org and a 30 person company. While you are ultimately in charge of managing the team we expect you to be a hands on operator and willing to roll your sleeves up
• Ability and interest in learning a highly niche, complex domain fast. Transmisison planning is incredibly intricate and becoming fluent in the language of “transmission” is critical to success in the role
• Low ego and mission driven. Your energized by the mission of the company and by building a team, motivating them, and partnering with world class founders
• Excellent communication and people leadership skills

Ideal backgrounds

• VP Product / CPO at a technical B2B SaaS company.
• GM of a complex technical product line.
• A product leader who has run a team or product function end to end.
• A former technical or product founder who scaled into executive leadership.
• Bonus points for experience in energy, grid infrastructure, climate, utilities, transmission, interconnection, or power markets, but not required

Originally posted on Himalayas