Product Tech Lead for FOSS (Global | Remote | English)

🌍 Product Tech Lead for FOSS (Global | Remote | English)

Location: Fully Remote (e.g. Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Germany)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Languages Required: English fluency
Experience Required: As below
Salary Range: Competitive, based on experience
Team: Software Engineering
Reports to: Head of Software Engineering, Sid Krishna
Works Closely With: Marketing Team (incl. UX Design), Modeling Team, and Engineering Team
Travel Requirements: Occasional travel to workshops or team events required
Start Date: Q1 2026 (exact dates TBD)

🧭 About Us

We’re a remote-first, mission-driven, registered non-profit, comprising around 50 highly-skilled and motivated professionals from all around the world. Our culture is built on trust, autonomy, and collaborative professionalism.

Open Energy Transition (OET) advances the global energy transition by developing open-source tools and data solutions for energy and grid planning. Our vision is to make open approaches the global standard by 2030, enabling energy planning that is more accessible, transparent, and effective. Our work is already being adopted by leading system operators, regulators, and philanthropic partners.

We build products that matter in the real world - and we do it openly. That means transparency, shared ownership, and a strong commitment to software craftsmanship and user impact.

To learn more about OET and our team, you can visit our website, and browse around our Handbook.

🎯 About the Role

As a Product Tech Lead, specifically for open-source software, you’ll be at the center of turning OET’s product vision into software that users love and trust. You’ll bridge engineering, product management, and leadership - guiding a team of software engineers to build technically excellent tools that solve real problems for energy-system stakeholders.

This role is for people who enjoy building products more than building technology for its own sake. You’ll lead with a product mindset, stay hands-on technically, and help your team focus on what truly matters - even when the path forward isn’t fully defined yet.

You’ll often work in a “product trio” setup (product, design, engineering), collaborating across OET with leadership, partners, and users. If you’ve ever owned a product end-to-end – not just coded features – then this is your playground.

Our Head of Software Engineering (aka your future Manager): Sid Krishna

🛠️ Your Key Responsibilities

• Own new product initiatives end-to-end: from problem definition to launch — including user research, concept development, validation, implementation, rollout, and continuous improvement.
• Shape and drive your team’s roadmap: evaluate and prioritize ideas based on OET strategy and user value; present and discuss roadmap decisions with product leadership regularly.
• Bridge product and engineering: think like a product manager, act like an engineer - translating between users, clients, and developers to ensure real needs are met.
• Build prototypes, build early, test assumptions, and iterate fast with your team and stakeholders.
• Ensure technical excellence: make pragmatic architectural and delivery decisions so what we ship is maintainable, usable, and reliable.
• Communicate clearly and proactively in a fully-remote work environment: tailor communication for different audiences, keep momentum, and reduce ambiguity.
• Collaborate cross-functionally: align with Marketing, UX/UI, QA, and leadership for coordinated delivery and go-to-market readiness.
• Bring your own learned lessons: apply what you’ve learned from past product wins and failures to help OET level up.

✅ You’ll Be a Great Fit If You Are/Have...

• Proven experience building and launching digital products end-to-end, owning outcomes (not just outputs).
• A strong product mindset: you care deeply about why and for whom you build, not only what you build.
• Senior software engineering experience, ideally in web application development across the full stack (Python+Java & Operational Research experience is a plus, but strong equivalent experience is welcome).
• Experience with product development practices such as agile, user research, design thinking, rapid prototyping, or similar.
• Hands-on ability to prototype and evaluate ideas and collaborate with engineers on equal footing.
• Excellent written communication skills and comfort working asynchronously in a fully remote environment.
• A people-first leadership style that fosters psychological safety, constructive challenge, and DEIB principles.
• Curiosity and pragmatism: you dig into problems until they make sense, then help the team move forward with focus.
• Comfort saying “no” to many good ideas so the best ones ship well.
• Fluency in English (German proficiency is not a requirement, but is a bonus).

No university degree required — your experience, judgment, communication, and craft matter most. However, a degree may be a bonus.

✨ What We Offer

• A flexible, fully-remote work environment where you’re trusted to work very autonomously. Zero micro-management, as that goes against our culture.
• The opportunity to support hardworking, passionate, busy leaders who value and respect your contributions, and are working to create positive societal change in the energy sector.
• A culture that values transparency, empathy, trust, humility, diversity, collaboration, and recognition.
• We have an open-door policy, and value reciprocal feedback. You’ll always know where you stand, and always have the ability to have your voice heard, simply by reaching out.
• A pretty flat hierarchical structure, where titles are not emphasized, and all contributions are valued.
• Competitive salary with growth potential. Any relevant benefits depend on your region of residence.
• Supportive onboarding and training, tailored to your strengths, interests, and career ambitions.
• The ability to be part of our formation! We’re still growing, changing, and improving. Anyone who is part of our team now is able to meaningfully contribute towards our culture, and processes. We’re open to all suggestions, and take them seriously!

📝 What Our Hiring Process Entails

We take hiring seriously, and want to bring on candidates who will contribute positively towards our culture just as much as they will succeed in their roles.

Also, we don’t only want to have good outcomes from you. We also want you to feel happy and fulfilled in your position. That means we have a structured process to determine best fit. Our hiring process is as follows:

1. Candidates apply via Greenhouse, and include as much information as possible and comfortable.
2. Various team members of OET will shortlist candidates in our ATS.
3. Certain shortlisted candidates will be contacted to arrange a screening call.
4. Screening calls are conducted, and feature a max. 15 minute chat with our People Team.
5. Certain candidates will go through to a first-round interview, of max. 1 hour, with your prospective future manager. This interview will focus on role fit specifically.
6. Finalists will go through to a second-round interview, of max. 1 hour, with a panel, led by our Head of People. This interview will focus on culture fit and values.
7. Bonus round -  there may be a short, take-home, written assignment, depending on the role.
8. The chosen candidate will be provided with an offer letter, and opportunity to ask any questions. Thereafter, contracts will be signed.
9. Onboarding with our People Team begins.
10. Your start date arrives!

➡️ How to Apply

If you're excited to bring clarity and efficiency to the chaos of the lives of our senior leadership team, we’d love to hear from you!

Please submit an application via Greenhouse (our ATS), and include the following:

1. Your resume (CV) in English, including information about prior work and education, and current skills
2. A short cover letter explaining why this role is a great fit for you (feel free to add a bit of personality if you wish)
3. A link to your LinkedIn profile, GitHub profile (if you have one), and any other social profiles or portfolios you wish to include
4. Any relevant written references or testimonials (optional, but appreciated, and may give your application a boost)
5. Your gross salary expectations, annually, in Euros (EUR)
6. Your notice period/available start date (including any leave you may wish to take before starting a new role)
7. Any special needs requirements that may apply

If you have any questions about OET or the role, we’d be happy to answer them should we invite you to take part in a screening call or interview.

Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive, we are not able to respond to individual emails or LinkedIn requests. Kindly submit your application via Greenhouse, and we will shortlist and reach out to candidates.

If you have not received a response within 8 weeks of submitting your application, please consider it unsuccessful at this point in time. We may, however, still reach out in future. Our team maintains Talent Pools, containing candidates shortlisted for contact for future roles that may arise.

Deadline to apply: None (ongoing, so long as this role is live on our website)

We look forward to meeting the next person who will become an invaluable part of our team! Thank you for your time, and for considering joining OET.

If this role is not for you, feel free to check back later for any future positions that may have been posted.