Product Tech Lead FOSS; Global | Remote | English

Product Tech Lead for FOSS (Global | Remote | English)

Europe

Location
:
Fully Remote (e.g. Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Germany)
Employment Type
:
Full-Time
Languages Required
:
English fluency
Experience Required
:
As below
Salary Range
:
Competitive, based on experience
Team
:
Software Engineering
Reports to
:
Head of Software Engineering, Sid Krishna
Works Closely With
:
Marketing Team (incl. UX Design), Modeling Team, and Engineering Team
Travel Requirements
:
Occasional travel to workshops or team events required
Start Date
: Q1 2026 (exact dates TBD)

We’re a remote-first, mission-driven, registered non-profit, comprising around 50 highly-skilled and motivated professionals from all around the world. Our culture is built on trust, autonomy, and collaborative professionalism.

Open Energy Transition (OET) advances the global energy transition by developing open-source tools and data solutions for energy and grid planning
. Our vision is to make open approaches the global standard by 2030, enabling energy planning that is more accessible, transparent, and effective. Our work is already being adopted by leading system operators, regulators, and philanthropic partners.

We build products that matter in the real world - and we do it openly. That means transparency, shared ownership, and a strong commitment to software craftsmanship and user impact.

To learn more about OET and our team, you can visit our website, and browse around our Handbook.

As a Product Tech Lead
, specifically for open-source software, you’ll be at the center of turning OET’s product vision into software that users love and trust. You’ll bridge engineering, product management, and leadership - guiding a team of software engineers to build technically excellent tools that solve real problems for energy-system stakeholders.

This role is for people who enjoy building products more than building technology for its own sake
. You’ll lead with a product mindset, stay hands‑on technically, and help your team focus on what truly matters - even when the path forward isn’t fully defined yet.

You’ll often work in a “product trio” setup (product, design, engineering), collaborating across OET with leadership, partners, and users. If you’ve ever owned a product end‑to‑end – not just coded features – then this is your playground.

Our Head of Software Engineering (aka your future Manager):
Sid Krishna

• Own new product initiatives end‑to‑end: from problem definition to launch — including user research, concept development, validation, implementation, rollout, and continuous improvement.
• Shape and drive your team’s roadmap
  : evaluate and prioritize ideas based on OET strategy and user value; present and discuss roadmap decisions with product leadership regularly.
• Bridge product and engineering
  : think like a product manager, act like an engineer – translating between users, clients, and developers to ensure real needs are met.
• Build prototypes
  , build early, test assumptions, and iterate fast with your team and stakeholders.
• Ensure technical excellence
  : make pragmatic architectural and delivery decisions so what we ship is maintainable, usable, and reliable.
• Communicate clearly and proactively in a fully‑remote work environment: tailor communication for different audiences, keep momentum, and reduce ambiguity.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally
  : align with Marketing, UX/UI, QA, and leadership for coordinated delivery and go‑to‑market readiness.
• Bring your own learned lessons
  : apply what you’ve learned from past product wins and failures to help OET level up.

• Proven experience building and launching digital products end‑to‑end, owning outcomes (not just outputs).
• A strong product mindset
  : you care deeply about why and for whom you build, not only what you build.
• Senior software engineering experience
  , ideally in web application development across the full stack (Python+Java & Operational Research experience is a plus, but strong equivalent experience is welcome).
• Experience with product development practices such as agile, user research, design thinking, rapid prototyping, or similar.
• Hands‑on…