Market Operations Manager, SmartBidder

Ascend Analytics•Boulder, CO

9d•$120,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Ascend Analytics is hiring a Market Operations Manager for SmartBidder, its bid optimization platform for wholesale energy assets. SmartBidder uses probabilistic and AI-driven models to optimize bids based on forecasted nodal prices, asset-specific operating constraints, and risk-adjusted strategies. The platform supports more than 5 GW of battery storage assets across ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and ISONE. This hands-on leadership role leads the customer-facing analyst team and owns its operating model, including support coverage, new site onboarding, workload planning, and scalable processes. The manager works closely with Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to turn customer and market insights into product and service improvements. The position reports to the SmartBidder Business Lead and will lead a team of 4–6 analysts. Ascend Analytics’ mission is to create sustainable economic value for energy buyers and producers and transform the power industry through advanced analytics, cloud-based technology, and energy-market expertise. The company describes its culture as collaborative, inclusive, focused on work-life balance, creative thinking, and learning. The Boulder office operates on a hybrid schedule of three days in the office and two days remote.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, data science, economics, finance, mathematics, information systems, or another relevant quantitative or technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
At least 4 years of relevant professional experience in energy markets, energy software, analytics, technical operations, customer delivery, or a related field.
At least 1 year of people management experience, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and leading a team through growth or change.
Demonstrated project and program management skills, such as leading multi-stakeholder rollouts, launches, or implementations with defined timelines, dependencies, and risks.
Technical fluency sufficient to troubleshoot with analysts and engineers and translate between technical and business stakeholders; examples include basic SQL or Python and understanding APIs and data feeds. Subject-matter-expert depth is not required.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with analysts, engineers, commercial stakeholders, customers, and executives.
Demonstrated ability and interest in using AI-enabled tools for analysis, documentation, and workflow automation.
Self-directed, highly organized, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

Strong familiarity with wholesale electricity markets and ISO operations, including CAISO, ERCOT, or PJM, and bidding or asset optimization for batteries or renewables.
Experience at an energy software company, utility, independent power producer, trading firm, or other market participant.
Experience onboarding customers or managing implementations for complex software or data products.
Experience running a support, operations, or on-call rotation, including triage, escalation, and incident follow-through.
Experience managing a team through scaling, including defining roles, coverage models, or specialization.
Experience with Jira, Confluence, Wrike, ServiceNow, Zendesk, or similar project management and support platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a team of 4–6 SmartBidder analysts, including hiring, onboarding, goal setting, prioritization, performance reviews, and career development.
Own the analyst side of the support rotation, including scheduling, expectations, handoffs, coverage, workload monitoring, issue triage, and escalation to Engineering.
Oversee new site and customer onboarding, coordinating timelines, dependencies, go-live readiness, and handoffs into ongoing market operations.
Plan and balance analyst capacity across customers, ISO markets, trials, and new site launches, while developing coverage that builds expertise and preserves customer ownership.
Ensure consistent, high-quality delivery across market operations, strategy configuration, performance monitoring, and reporting.
Develop and maintain repeatable processes, runbooks, checklists, and training materials to standardize analyst workflows and reduce manual effort, including through automation and AI-enabled tools.
Manage team projects and programs by tracking priorities, owners, milestones, and risks, and communicating status to the Business Lead and cross-functional partners.
Represent the analyst team with Product and Engineering by gathering and prioritizing recurring customer and operational issues, supporting QA/UAT and release readiness, and facilitating business validation of new capabilities.
Track operational health metrics, including support volume, response and resolution times, and onboarding cycle times, to drive continuous improvement.