Market Operations Manager, SmartBidder

Market Operations Manager, Smart Bidder, Boulder, CO (Hybrid)

Smart Bidder is scaling fast, and the analyst team is the engine behind it. As the Market Operations Manager, you will lead the customer-facing analysts who keep more than 5 GW of battery storage performing in ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and ISONE. You will build and lead a team of analysts and own how it runs: the support rotation, bringing new sites online, workload and coverage planning, and the processes that let us grow the fleet without growing the operational burden.

This is a hands‑on leadership role reporting to the Smart Bidder Business Lead, with real ownership and visibility across the business. You will work side by side with Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to turn customer and market insight into a better product and a stronger service. The ideal candidate is an experienced people manager and operational leader but technical enough to earn the trust of analysts and engineers and troubleshoot alongside them.

If you like building strong teams, solving operational puzzles, and helping a fast‑growing business scale, this is the role for you.

At Ascend Analytics, our mission is to create sustainable economic value for energy buyers and producers and transform the power industry. Our team combines advanced analytics, cloud‑based technology, and deep market expertise to help our clients solve complex challenges across grid reliability, power market volatility, renewable integration, infrastructure development, and energy investment strategy. As a high‑growth, private equity‑backed company, Ascend continues to expand its market presence while investing in innovation, talent, and scalable solutions for an increasingly dynamic energy market.

Smart Bidder delivers tailored bid optimization solutions for wholesale assets using advanced probabilistic and AI‑driven models that integrate forecasted nodal price trends, asset‑specific operational constraints, and risk‑adjusted optimization strategies. The platform is trusted to manage over 5 GW of battery storage assets across ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and ISONE. From fully managed to self‑service, Smart Bidder customers have unparalleled control and flexibility to use built‑in strategies based on profit and risk tolerance or integrate their own models into the platform.

Real influence. Real outcomes. At every level.

• Team leadership. Lead, coach, and grow a team of 4-6 Smart Bidder analysts. You’ll shape how the team hires, onboards, prioritizes, and develops, and build a culture of collaboration and high accountability.
• Operational ownership. Own the analyst side of the support rotation and new site onboardings, from scheduling and handoffs to go‑live readiness. Your work keeps customers’ battery and renewable assets bidding smoothly across ISO markets.
• Process and innovation. Build the runbooks, checklists, and training materials that make the team faster and more consistent, and bring AI‑enabled tools and automation into everyday analyst workflows.
• Cross‑functional partnership. Be the voice of the analyst team with Product, Engineering, and the Business Lead. Surface recurring customer issues, support QA/UAT and releases, and turn operational insight into better outcomes for customers.

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of 4-6 Smart Bidder analysts, including hiring, onboarding, goal setting, setting prioritization, performance reviews, career development, and building a collaborative, high‑accountability team culture.
• Own the analyst side of the Smart Bidder support rotation: set the schedule, define expectations and handoffs, monitor coverage and workload, and ensure issues are triaged and escalated appropriately to Engineering.
• Oversee new site…