Technical Solutions Manager

Job Description

Granular is a fast-growing climate tech startup paving the way towards a carbon-free grid.

We provide a SaaS portfolio management platform to electricity companies and suppliers. The platform helps solve the complex issue of hourly matching between clean energy generation and consumption, at scale. You can find out more about the 24/7 energy space in this article.

Initially founded in 2021, our team is now approaching 30 people. We have clients in the US, Europe, and Asia, but our team is primarily located in western Europe. Following an oversubscribed funding round in 2023, we have plenty of runway.

This is your opportunity to work on a product that’s creating a pathway to a fully clean energy grid. Your efforts will have a direct and sizeable contribution on the climate crisis!

Remote-first

Granular Energy is a remote-first organisation and this role is 100% remote. We hire employees that live in mainland Western & Central-West Europe (e.g. France, Germany, Austria, northern Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, northern Spain, or mainland UK) so they can get to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, or London by train within a reasonable time frame 3-4 times per year (either night train or half-day ride).

What’s the mission of this role?

This role is a hands-on Manager for our developing “Technical Solutions” team (small team of 2), at the crossroad between Sales and Product teams, and in direct interaction with our clients.

At Granular Energy, the Technical Solutions team is in charge of supporting the business development activities with advising prospects and clients, and ensuring the delivery and success of the best solution(s) to them, once onboarded.

In practice, this is a client-facing role involving a great deal of domain expertise, data-related tasks and development of ad-hoc technical solutions (such as algorithms) to solve customer specific problems. The role also requires navigating complex systems and figuring out integration plans to ensure a smooth onboarding of our enterprise clients.

The role is extremely transverse and strategic to our business, and has ties with our commercial, product and technical activities. It is a great opportunity to make an impact and drive change in the energy industry, but also to learn from different departments at Granular and unlock growth opportunities in several of them!

Note: In other companies, this role could be called a Technical advisor, Sales engineer, Technical solutions engineer.

Who we are looking for!

Responsibilities of this role

• Hands-on implementation of solutions and case studies with our clients:
  • understanding client challenges, and translating those into clear problem formulations (including mathematical ones)
  • portfolio analysis and modelling
  • scripting / problem solving through code
  • result presentation and client interaction
• Analysing systems (ETRMs, billing systems / ERPs, CRM) and dissecting data representations in our clients’ environments, with a high level of detail and rigour, to inform integration strategies
• Managing client and prospects onboarding and service, from communication and advisory, to technical support
• Management and coaching of the current -2- team members
  • Building and staffing a TS team according to the business need and strategy
  • Owning of the team backlog, setting of priorities and trade-offs
  • Organizing the team and activities, to ensure scalability of our processes (automation, efficiency gains…)
• Reporting on / synthesizing activity, pain points, and progress on main ongoing projects to other key managers in the company
• Contributing to product and other transversal projects when required

Some examples activities:

Technical Work (about 70%)

Figuring out business context from data: analysing and transforming of client data (Excel spreadsheets) Modelling of portfolios and deriving solutions such as solving of optimization problems (algorithms / python scripts) Improvement of internal efficiency and speed of delivering custom algorithms for our clients needs Improvement of scalability of internal tooling and team workflows

Client communication

Translation of technical and product related concepts into non-technical language and visualizations for clients

Sales process

Asking questions to identify our clients’ needs during the sales process and tailor demo case studies for them, as well as run workshops

Essential experiences, competencies & knowledge

• Experience in consulting/advisory, audit, finance or data science roles, or anything with practical experience in building financial models or implementing data-science problems, and with a maths, physics or engineering background
• Excellent communication skills, ability to interact with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders
• Experience in the Energy and trading industry, or at least suggestion that there is interest and willingness to learn fast the industry
• Strong analytical mindset and problem-solving skills, with acute attention to detail
• Strong knowledge of a scripting language (preferably Python, VBA or R knowledge a plus)
• Very comfortable in a fast-paced environment, working under tight deadlines, while keeping a high level of quality in your work
• Excel mastery and advanced proficiency with office tools (Powerpoint)
• Fluent in English
• Great ability to learn! This role has 3 pillars (energy & trading knowledge, our product knowledge and technical skills) and you would need to scale yourself up in at least one or two of the other pillars quickly during onboarding.

Bonus points for

• Experience in startup and/or remote environments is a strong plus
• Knowledge of carbon accounting frameworks like the GHG Protocol or corporate sustainability schemes such as RE100

What’s in it for you!

• Transparent salaries based on seniority/location (see “compensation” section left)
• Remote first: WFH, in our London office, or your local co-working space
• Three all-hands gatherings each year: most recently in Brussels, London, Amsterdam
• Minimum 30 days holiday (plus public holidays)
• Physical & mental health: we offer gym subsidies and access to therapy via Spill
• Equity: earn equity in a fast-growing company (BSPCE/EMI)
• Make your mark on an early-stage climate product in a high-impact space

DEI Statement

Granular Energy is dedicated to fostering diversity and nurturing talent. If you don't possess all the skills listed above but believe you have the qualities we're seeking, we encourage you to reach out. We value diverse perspectives and are committed to building an inclusive team.

We look for candidates who have a high level of demonstrated comfort with cultural competency. People of colour, people with disabilities, veterans, women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are encouraged to apply. All applicants will be considered without regard to race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, sex, marital or parental status, disability, gender identity or expression, age, or any other basis prohibited by law.

A bit more about our product

Our product currently consists of a portfolio management solution for energy suppliers, retailers, utilities, traders. It helps our clients model their portfolio of supply and demand in a comprehensive way, and manage and optimize the flow and attribution of carbon-free energy within this portfolio. It supports the launch and service of new-generation, more transparent green offers, while helping portfolio managers streamline their operations and risk management. We would welcome your thoughts and questions on this value proposition, in our first screening interview.

Our recruitment process

• Initial 30-minute screening call by someone from the People team
• A first interview by the TS team
• Take home assignment
• Final interview for 60-minute with the Chief Product Officer and another executive