Technical Program Manager - EV Charging Platform OCPP & NET Core

Zero Impact Solutions•Irvine, 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 supporting 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. This role is accountable for the platform roadmap, interoperability in the field, release delivery, and translating utility, regulatory, customer, and commercial needs into engineering milestones. The position works across backend engineering, firmware and hardware partners, QA and certification, field operations, and commercial teams. It serves as the primary technical interface to charger manufacturers, charge point operators, e-mobility service providers, utilities, and enterprise fleet customers. The role includes close technical involvement in OCPP logs, architecture reviews, vendor firmware deviations, certification, platform reliability, security, and customer onboarding. The role is based in person at the company's Costa Mesa, California office, with an 8-hour Monday–Friday schedule. The listed annual compensation is $95,000–$120,000. Zero Impact Solutions is the execution arm of the Zero Impact Energy platform, delivering EV charging and energy infrastructure projects, including design, permitting, construction, commissioning, and ongoing service.

Requirements

At least 7 years in technical program management or engineering management roles delivering backend or IoT platforms.
At least 3 years of experience in EV charging, energy, telematics, or connected-device systems.
Working fluency in OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1, including reading message traces, diagnosing charger messages, explaining the OCPP 2.0.1 transaction lifecycle, and describing Smart Charging profile interactions.
Strong understanding of .NET Core and C# backend systems, including ASP.NET Core, asynchronous programming, dependency injection, and microservice design 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 and AWS acceptable, including managed Kubernetes or container services, message brokers, managed databases, and observability tools.
Demonstrated success delivering 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 with technical, executive, and customer audiences.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with OCPI 2.2.1 roaming integrations with eMSPs and roaming hubs such as Hubject or Gireve, including tariff, CDR, and session modules.
Knowledge of ISO 15118-2 or ISO 15118-20 and Plug & Charge, including certificate pools, contract certificates, and the CSMS role.
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 configurations, CCS1 and NACS (SAE J3400) connectors, dynamic power sharing, and load management.
Knowledge of utility and grid programs, 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 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 distributed energy resource integration.
PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or equivalent program management certification.

Responsibilities

Own the CSMS technical roadmap, including scope, phase gates, success criteria, release cadence, and alignment with commercial commitments and regulatory deadlines.
Translate business, customer, and regulatory requirements into engineering epics, acceptance criteria, and 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 reliability work 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 and firmware certification matrices, interoperability testing, and field deployment approval.
Maintain a register of known vendor firmware deviations and determine whether to implement workarounds, request vendor fixes, or decline support.
Lead the installed-base migration from OCPP 1.6J to 2.0.1, 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 capable of supporting large numbers of concurrent WebSocket sessions and high-frequency meter data.
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 versioned APIs for customer 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 protocol-related incident reviews, including root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and roadmap changes where needed.
Define release quality requirements, including automated OCPP conformance tests, charger-simulator 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.
Act as the primary technical interface for charger manufacturers, firmware vendors, utilities, CPOs, eMSPs, and enterprise fleet customers.
Negotiate technical scope, timelines, and acceptance criteria with vendors; monitor delivery and escalate issues with evidence.
Lead technical onboarding for large customer deployments, including integration design, cutover plans, pilot acceptance, and hypercare.
Coordinate 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 the platform addresses 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 with field operations on firmware campaigns and maintenance windows.
Maintain integration guides, charger compatibility matrices, runbooks, and decision logs.
Coach engineers and junior program managers on protocol fluency and structured problem solving.