Technical Program Manager - EV Charging Platform OCPP & NET Core

Zero Impact Solutions•Huntington Beach, CA

3d•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 supports DC fast chargers and Level 2 stations from multiple manufacturers. The platform must operate reliably at scale over long-lived WebSocket connections and support OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1. The role is accountable for the platform roadmap, interoperability in the field, and timely delivery of releases. It translates commercial, customer, utility, and regulatory requirements into engineering milestones and works across backend engineering, hardware and firmware partners, QA and certification, field operations, and commercial teams. It also serves as the primary technical interface to charger manufacturers, charge point operators, e-mobility service providers, utilities, and enterprise fleet customers. The position owns program strategy and roadmap, OCPP conformance and charger onboarding, migration planning, architecture and engineering partnership, risk and quality management, vendor and customer relationships, security and compliance, and release operations. It partners with .NET Core architects on an event-driven microservices platform, defines non-functional requirements and release quality bars, oversees protocol-related incident reviews, and tracks platform KPIs. The role also maintains program documentation, coordinates firmware campaigns and maintenance windows, and coaches engineers and junior program managers on protocol fluency and structured problem solving. The role is based in person at the Costa Mesa, California office, with an 8-hour Monday–Friday schedule. Compensation is $95,000–$120,000 per year. Zero Impact Solutions is the execution arm of the Zero Impact Energy platform and delivers EV charging and energy infrastructure projects, including design, permitting, construction, commissioning, and long-term service.

Requirements

At least 7 years in technical program or engineering management roles delivering backend or IoT platforms, including at least 3 years in EV charging, energy, telematics, or connected-device systems.
Working fluency in OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1, including interpreting message traces, identifying protocol issues, explaining the OCPP 2.0.1 transaction lifecycle, and describing Smart Charging profile stacking.
Strong understanding of .NET Core/C# backend systems, including ASP.NET Core, asynchronous programming, dependency injection, and microservice decomposition trade-offs.
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 and 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 risk 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.

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 or ISO 15118-20 and Plug & Charge experience, including certificate pools, contract certificates, and the CSMS role in the Plug & Charge ecosystem.
Prior OCA certification delivery, plugfest participation, or experience running 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, 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.
EV charging payments and billing experience, including credit 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, defining program scope, phase gates, success criteria, release cadence, and alignment with commercial commitments and regulatory deadlines.
Translate business, customer, and regulatory requirements into epics, acceptance criteria, and engineering 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, making explicit trade-offs.
Oversee implementation and conformance of OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1 across supported profiles and functional blocks.
Own charger onboarding and certification matrices by manufacturer and firmware version; run interoperability testing and approve models for field deployment.
Maintain a register of known firmware deviations and determine whether to implement platform workarounds, request 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 participation in OCA plugfests and third-party conformance testing, and track OCPP 2.1 and ISO 15118-20 readiness.
Partner with .NET Core architects on an event-driven microservices design that supports large numbers of concurrent WebSocket sessions, MeterValues ingestion, and exactly-once transaction handling.
Set and enforce non-functional requirements for connection stability, 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 versioned APIs for customer portals, mobile apps, fleet systems, payment processors, and OCPI partners.
Identify and mitigate compatibility, firmware update, certificate expiry, and cross-team dependency risks.
Own incident reviews for protocol-related outages, including root-cause analysis, corrective action, and roadmap changes where needed.
Define release quality bars, including automated OCPP conformance and load tests, staged rollouts, and rollback criteria.
Track and report platform KPIs including 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; monitor delivery and escalate delays with evidence.
Lead technical onboarding for large customer 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, certificate lifecycle management, secure firmware signing, and secure event logging.
Coordinate penetration testing and remediation, and ensure compliance with payment, privacy, and contractual security requirements.
Maintain audit-grade metering, transaction, and firmware records for LCFS and utility incentive reporting.
Run the release train, including sprint rituals, release notes, change management, and coordination with field operations on firmware campaigns and maintenance windows.
Maintain integration guides, charger compatibility matrices, runbooks, and a decision log.
Coach engineers and junior program managers on protocol fluency and structured problem solving.