Technical Program Manager - EV Charging Platform OCPP & NET Core

Zero Impact Solutions•Costa Mesa, CA

8d•Onsite

About The Position

Zero Impact Solutions is hiring a hands-on Technical Program Manager to own delivery of its cloud Charging Station Management System (CSMS), a .NET Core platform that connects thousands of DC fast chargers and Level 2 stations from multiple manufacturers. The platform must operate reliably at scale over long-lived WebSocket connections, support OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1, and meet uptime, billing, security, and regulatory requirements. This is a technical ownership role rather than a project-coordination position, with accountability for roadmap delivery and field interoperability. The role leads program strategy, release planning, OCPP implementation and charger certification, and partners with .NET Core architects and engineering teams on platform design and non-functional requirements. It also manages technical risks, incidents, vendor and customer relationships, hardware certification and compliance workstreams, security requirements, and cross-functional delivery with engineering, QA, field operations, commercial teams, and external partners. The position serves as the primary technical interface for charger manufacturers, firmware vendors, utilities, charge point operators, e-mobility service providers, and enterprise fleet customers. The successful candidate will have substantial experience delivering backend or IoT platforms, including experience in EV charging, energy, telematics, or connected-device systems; working fluency in OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1; and enough .NET Core and C# knowledge to contribute effectively to design reviews. A bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience is required. The job is in-person at the Costa Mesa, California office, with an 8-hour Monday–Friday schedule. Compensation is $95,000–$120,000 per year.

Requirements

At least 7 years in technical program or engineering management roles delivering backend or IoT platforms.
At least 3 years in EV charging, energy, telematics, or connected-device systems.
Working fluency in OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1, including reading message traces, diagnosing BootNotification/Heartbeat/StatusNotification issues, explaining the OCPP 2.0.1 transaction lifecycle, and describing Smart Charging profile stacking.
Strong understanding of .NET Core and C# backend systems, including ASP.NET Core, asynchronous programming, dependency injection, and microservice decomposition trade-offs.
Ability to participate effectively in technical design reviews; production coding is not required.
Hands-on experience with WebSocket-based, long-lived connection systems at scale, including reconnection, message ordering, idempotency, and offline queuing.
Cloud platform experience with Azure preferred or AWS acceptable, including managed Kubernetes or container services, message brokers, managed databases, and observability tooling.
Demonstrated delivery of multi-quarter programs with hardware dependencies, vendor management, and certification or compliance gates.
Structured risk management skills, including maintaining a live register, quantifying impact, and escalating early with options.
Clear written and verbal communication for technical, executive, and customer audiences.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Ability to reliably commute to or relocate to Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Nice To Haves

OCPI 2.2.1 roaming integrations with eMSPs and roaming hubs such as Hubject or Gireve, including tariff, CDR, and session modules.
ISO 15118-2/-20 and Plug & Charge knowledge, including certificate pools, contract certificates, and the CSMS role in the Plug & Charge ecosystem.
Prior OCA certification delivery, including plugfest participation or operating a lab with charger simulators and test tools.
DC fast-charging hardware knowledge, including power modules, dispenser/cabinet splits, CCS1 and NACS (SAE J3400) connectors, dynamic power sharing, and load management.
Utility and grid program experience, including OpenADR demand response, managed-charging tariffs, demand subscription rates, and interconnection or make-ready processes.
Familiarity with NEVI/CFI uptime and reporting requirements, state incentive programs, and LCFS or similar clean-fuel credit reporting dependent on metering accuracy.
Experience with EV charging payments and billing, including card terminals, pre-authorization, EMV, and kWh- versus time-based pricing.
Experience with Azure IoT Hub, Service Bus or Event Hubs, Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL or SQL Server, and time-series storage for meter data.
Fleet depot charging experience, including schedule-driven charging, vehicle telematics integration, and commercial fleet uptime SLAs.
Awareness of OCPP 2.1 and its implications for bidirectional charging and DER integration.
PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or equivalent program management certification.

Responsibilities

Own the CSMS technical roadmap, including program scope, phase gates, success criteria, release cadence, and alignment with commercial commitments and regulatory deadlines.
Translate business, customer, and regulatory needs into engineering epics, acceptance criteria, and estimable milestones.
Run quarterly planning, weekly program reviews, and release go/no-go decisions; communicate status, risks, and decisions to leadership.
Prioritize charger onboarding, customer integrations, protocol upgrades, and platform reliability with explicit trade-offs.
Oversee OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1 implementation and conformance across supported profiles and functional blocks.
Own charger onboarding and certification, including manufacturer/firmware certification matrices, interoperability test plans, and field-deployment approval.
Maintain a register of charger firmware deviations from OCPP specifications and determine whether to implement workarounds, require vendor fixes, or decline support.
Lead the OCPP 1.6J-to-2.0.1 migration plan, including dual-protocol operation, security upgrades, and firmware rollout sequencing.
Coordinate OCA plugfest participation and third-party conformance testing; track OCPP 2.1 and ISO 15118-20 readiness.
Partner with .NET Core architects on event-driven microservices supporting large numbers of concurrent WebSocket sessions, MeterValues ingestion, and exactly-once transaction handling.
Define and enforce non-functional requirements for connection stability, message latency, offline transaction recovery, scalability, observability, and multi-region failover.
Review technical designs for protocol correctness, backward compatibility, and operational risk.
Ensure the platform provides clean, versioned APIs for portals, mobile apps, fleet systems, payment processors, and OCPI partners.
Identify and mitigate hardware-to-cloud compatibility risks, firmware update bottlenecks, certificate expiry, and cross-team dependencies.
Lead incident reviews for protocol-related outages, including root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and roadmap changes when needed.
Define release quality bars, including automated OCPP conformance tests, charger-simulator load tests, staged rollouts, and rollback criteria.
Track and report platform KPIs such as charger uptime, session success, transaction reconciliation accuracy, charger onboarding time, and firmware campaign completion.
Serve as the primary technical interface for manufacturers, firmware vendors, utilities, CPOs, eMSPs, and enterprise fleet customers.
Negotiate technical scope, timelines, and acceptance criteria with vendors; track delivery and escalate delays with evidence.
Lead customer-facing technical onboarding for large deployments, including integration design, cutover plans, pilot acceptance, and hypercare.
Drive hardware certification and compliance workstreams, including UL/ETL listing, Energy Star, NEVI/CFI requirements, utility make-ready, and demand-response integrations.
Own the OCPP 2.0.1 security program, including security profiles 1–3, certificate lifecycle management, secure firmware signing, and secure event logging.
Coordinate penetration testing and remediation, and ensure the platform meets payment, privacy, and contractual security requirements.
Maintain audit-grade records of metering, transactions, and firmware versions for LCFS and utility incentive reporting.
Run the release train, including sprint rituals, release notes, change management, and coordination of firmware campaigns and maintenance windows with field operations.
Maintain integration guides, charger compatibility matrices, runbooks, and decision logs.
Coach engineers and junior program managers on protocol fluency and structured problem solving.
Establish the CSMS architecture, charger fleet, protocol issues, risk register, and known-deviations register during the initial 90 days, and ship a release on the defined cadence.
Develop and begin executing an approved OCPP 2.0.1 migration plan, reduce charger onboarding time against a baseline, and establish vendor scorecards for active manufacturers within six months.
Drive platform uptime and session-success targets, reduce incident volume, certify at least two new charger models, and maintain a trusted roadmap, KPI, and release process within 12 months.