Hardware Product Lead: V2X DC Bidirectional Charging at Emporia in Littleton, Colorado

Job description

• Emporia's DC bidirectional program pairs white-labeled power electronics from an inverter supplier with the Vehicle Integration Board, the piece Emporia designs in-house. The design is in-flight. It needs one clear owner to drive it through validation, certification, and launch: the supplier on one side, our own board development on the other.
• Every Emporia hardware product moves through the same product development lifecycle (PDLC): Concept, Feasibility, EVT, DVT, PVT, Launch & Ramp, and Sustaining/EOL. This program is already well into design, so the weight of this role sits from EVT forward: program management, execution, and go-to-market rather than early concept work. The Product Lead is the DRI, the single-person decision maker for product definition, development, and launch. They do not necessarily do all the work, but they ensure the work gets done. Where this description says "own," it means accountable for the decision and the outcome, not doing the work alone. AI is what lets one person cover this much ground: draft the PRD and business case yourself, build initial concepts and designs, then spend your time on what AI cannot touch, like OEM and utility negotiations, certification, gate reviews, and unblocking the team.
• You report to SVP Product and own the program from here through Launch & Ramp, then hand the DRI role to Operations and Sustaining, moving into a supporting role. Bidirectional charging only works when the vehicle, the home, and the utility all cooperate, so launch depends as much on automotive OEM approval and utility interconnection as on the hardware. We move quickly by being disciplined, not by skipping process. The same stage-gates and deliverables stay in place: PRD, PCD, business case, design reviews, launch readiness. AI should accelerate the work to be done and minimize and remove hand offs along the way.

Responsibilities

• Definition & Business Case: Closing Out Concept
• The concept is largely set. Your job here is to close the gaps and own the numbers.
• Take over the PRD and PCD, close the open requirements, and lock the interface between the supplier's power electronics and our Vehicle Integration Board.
• Own the business case and unit economics yourself, with AI as-needed: supplier cost, board cost, installed cost, and the price the market will carry.
• Keep competitive positioning current and recommend go/no-go at each remaining stage gate.
• Program Delivery: EVT, DVT & PVT
• The center of the job. Own getting it built, validated, and certified on schedule.
• Own the schedule and gate reviews across the inverter supplier, our in-house board development, test, and Operations, holding the critical path in one place.
• Work with Manufacturing Operations to hold the inverter supplier to specs, cost, quality, schedule, and roadmap.
• Drive the Vehicle Integration Board through development and validation: electrical, firmware, bring-up, and test.
• Drive the safety and interconnection path with Engineering and Compliance, including where the supplier's certifications end and system-level listing begins: UL 9741, ISO 15118, IEEE 1547, UL 1741 SB, and the labs and AHJ dialogue. Know what their platform can and cannot do before committing to it.
• Drive automotive OEM engagement to a validated, approved vehicle list at launch, including compatibility testing and each OEM's own approval process.
• Work utility interconnection in every launch territory, and unblock the program yourself rather than waiting for someone else to raise it.
• Launch: Mass Production Ramp & Go-to-Market
• Get the product to market and selling. This is the last phase you own outright.
• Own go-to-market working with Marketing, BD, and Customer Support: positioning, pricing, launch messaging, and the installer and channel readiness the product needs to sell.
• Land the OEM side of launch: the approved vehicle list, partner coordination, and clear customer-facing compatibility guidance.
• Own the ramp: first installs, commissioning results, early field performance, and the go/no-go on scaling.
• Make the final call on when and how it ships, then hand off to Operations and Sustaining with baseline metrics, known issues, and the rationale behind key decisions.
• Sustaining & EOL: Supporting Role
• After ramp, Operations and Sustaining own the product. Your role here reduces.
• Be the person who knows why decisions were made. You are no longer the DRI.
• Answer roadmap, customer-impact, and escalation questions when asked, supporting the resolution.
• Carry field and quality lessons into your next program.
• Driving AI Adoption: Across Every Phase
• Native AI-use runs through the whole job. Gates, deliverables, and approvals stay in place. The waiting between them goes away. Push that on the team, not just yourself.
• Automate and optimize the manual, slow, or expensive steps you find in the PDLC. Push yourself and the broader team to challenge the default approach without diluting the deliverable.
• Use AI to build at the edge of capability. Exemplify AI-enabled execution, encouraging Engineering, Operations, and partners to push past their traditional approach and deliver faster.
• Build and share your own tools, prompts, and workflows instead of asking for headcount.
• Be honest about where AI is not working, and feed real evidence back into how Emporia adopts it.

Requirements

• 5+ years across product management and program or delivery management for hardware, with full ownership through launch.
• Strong program management across a mixed build: experience holding a white-label, ODM, or contract partner to specs, cost, and schedule while an in-house team delivers a critical component.
• A track record as a DRI, accountable for outcomes and not just definition, comfortable with ambiguity and parallel workstreams, and willing to hand off cleanly at ramp.
• Experience with EV charging, power electronics, inverters, or other grid-connected hardware.
• Experience in a certification-heavy environment, and comfort owning a safety and interconnection approval path end to end.
• Experience working with automotive OEMs, utilities, or other institutional partners whose approval gates your launch.
• Heavy, fluent use of AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok or similar), plus a habit of building your own tooling instead of asking for headcount, and getting others to adopt it.
• Business sense: you can own a business case, unit economics, and margin trade-offs leadership will bet on.
• Strong cross-functional leadership: you lead through influence and escalate well without formal reporting authority.
• Experience running a formal gate process for hardware, and a belief that discipline is what makes speed possible.
• DC fast charging, V2G, V2H, or other bidirectional charging products, and UL 9741, ISO 15118, IEEE 1547, or UL 1741 experience.
• Automotive OEM program, validation, or homologation experience.
• Utility interconnection or grid-services programs.
• Owning a board-level design (electrical and firmware) through validation and production.
• A career spanning both product management and program management, in a fast-paced, test and validation driven environment.

Skills

Required

• Product management
• Program management
• Delivery management
• Hardware development
• Program management across mixed build
• DRI (Directly Responsible Individual)
• EV charging
• Power electronics
• Inverters
• Grid-connected hardware
• Certification-heavy environment
• Safety and interconnection approval

Preferred

• DC fast charging
• V2G
• V2H
• Bidirectional charging
• UL 9741
• ISO 15118
• IEEE 1547
• UL 1741

Benefits

• 💰 Compensation: The expected base salary range is $145,000 - $190,000, plus stock options. The offered salary will depend on numerous factors, including but not limited to work experience, skills, and internal equity considerations. The base salary does not include benefits or other incentives.
• 🏥 Benefits: medical/dental/vision insurance, 401(k), employee stock option program, paid holidays plus unlimited PTO, discounts on Emporia products and partner offerings.
• 📈 Career Growth: Be part of a fast-growing company at the forefront of home energy innovation.