Director, Grid Connections

Imagine having the power to stress-test an entire power grid against a hurricane or thunderstorm before the clouds even gather. That is the reality we are creating at Neara. We use advanced machine learning to create engineering-grade, physics enabled digital twins of electricity grids across four continents, this helps asset owners understand their biggest challenges and bring the most viable solutions to life across millions of kilometres of infrastructure. By simulating extreme weather and structural stress at a network-wide scale, we empower the world’s largest utilities to pinpoint risks, optimise investments and build a more resilient global energy future. Our team is a collection of brilliant minds who are fanatical about making a tangible difference in the real world, utilising AI and machine learning to accelerate everything from data classification to complex scenario analysis. We have built a special culture where innovation thrives because everyone owns the mission and we need smart, creative people to help us scale this impact to every corner of the globe. THE PROBLEM YOU’LL HELP SOLVE Utilities are contending with a rapidly shifting energy mix and a surge in connection requests, from renewable generation to hyperscale data centre campuses. Together, these pressures are testing the long-term reliability and resilience of critical infrastructure networks. Until now, utilities have had to manage these challenges by making conservative assumptions drawn from siloed data. Neara acquired Zepben to solve this problem. By combining electrical, physical and risk modelling, we’ve created the world’s first integrated digital twin, giving utilities a single model in which to assess physical and electrical constraints together. The result is faster connections, more clean energy on the grid, real progress towards decarbonisation targets and downward pressure on power prices. As Director, Grid Connections, you will lead the integration and development of this capability and create Neara’s Grid Connections solution, extending our impact beyond utilities to the communities and customers they serve. This is a rare opportunity to use two powerful platforms in Neara and Zepben to create an entirely new category of software that helps to meaningfully accelerate the energy transition. ROLE OVERVIEW & PURPOSE Your key responsibility is to lead the delivery of the Self-Service Grid Connection Toolkit project https://www.grants.gov.au/Ga/Show/b7e8fbc2-32fb-4f87-8c98-30cbff15ad2a (the Project), which was awarded to Zepben under the Australian Government’s Grid Enhancing Technology (GET) Grant. Successfully delivering the Project will validate product-market fit and champion the Neara connection solution, creating demand amongst Australian utilities, governments and government agencies seeking faster, more transparent resolutions for connection enquiries. The Director, Grid Connections, is responsible for driving the overall success of the Project. You will provide hands-on commercial, product, delivery and customer leadership, manage the Customer Success engineers assigned to the Project, and ensure engineering receives timely requirements, customer feedback and product input. A Delivery Lead (Project Manager) will report to the Director, Grid Connections, and manage the day-to-day timeline and deployment of the Project, holding the engineering team accountable for agreed commitments, and producing all project reporting. Key issues and strategic decisions will be escalated to the Director, Grid Connections. WHAT YOU’LL DO: - Overall Project accountability. Own project outcomes and make time, cost and product trade-offs using the Delivery Lead’s forecasts and risk assessments. Decide priorities and recovery actions, and show leadership and initiative by independently approving material project decisions within delegated authority. - Customer Success engineering management. Manage the Customer Success engineers assigned to the Project, setting priorities, coordinating workload and coaching delivery. Ensure the team carries out detailed customer discovery, requirements, testing and deployment work, with clear outputs and timely input to the broader engineering team. - Product priorities and market fit. In collaboration with Neara’s Product Director, Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, define an efficient, scalable product expansion to capture value for global utilities. Ensure T/DNSP and external-user workflows become actionable requirements and acceptance criteria. Use prototypes, demonstrations and pilot feedback to validate product fit, resolve conflicting needs and guide engineering trade-offs. - Partner readiness and customer decisions. Lead GET partner relationships to secure data, workflow input, customer decisions and testing participation. Resolve substantive customer issues and senior stakeholder blockers, supported by the Delivery Lead’s tracking of commitments and dependencies. - GET deployment and acceptance. Own GET customer readiness and acceptance outcomes. Direct Customer Success engineers on onboarding, integration coordination and customer testing, working with Engineering on technical readiness and the Delivery Lead on deployment scheduling and dependencies. - Product championing and government expansion. Explain the product's capabilities and value through technical workshops, demonstrations and customer discussions (including potential customers such as governments and government agencies). Build interest with T/DNSPs and external users, relay opportunities to AU Sales, and provide product and technical input to future scaling plans. - Benefits evidence and industry contribution. Own the evidence of product benefits, including connection-processing time, engineering effort, application quality and customer experience. Supply verified findings and approve substantive content for reporting and globally applicable case studies. WHAT YOU’LL BRING: Essential: - Substantial Australian electricity or energy-sector experience, with practical understanding of distribution network connections and relevant customer workflows. - Proven commercial leader, with demonstrated ability to commercialise and expand the adoption of energy-sector technologies. - Demonstrated project outcome leadership across customer, engineering and product teams, including making time, cost and product trade-offs. - Ability to turn customer discovery into prioritised requirements, acceptance criteria and timely product decisions, and validate product fit through practical testing. - Ability to explain technical value to senior stakeholders, influence customer decisions and develop credible evidence and business cases. Desirable: - Experience with DER integration, network planning, technical product commercialisation, government-funded projects or grid connection policy and reform. SCOPE AND WORKING RELATIONSHIPS: - Product authority: The Chief Product Officer sets overall platform direction. This role decides priorities within that framework and escalates changes outside it or the agreed project mandate. - Delivery Lead interface: The Delivery Lead owns the daily schedule, dependencies, risk and cost tracking, and all project reporting, including grant reporting. They hold engineering accountable for commitments and escalate variances. The Director retains overall accountability and decides time, cost and product trade-offs. - Engineering interface: Engineering owns estimates, architecture, implementation, technical quality and team management. The Director supplies priorities and customer decisions; the Delivery Lead follows up delivery commitments. - Sales and deployment boundaries: The role sits outside Sales and champions the product. AU Sales owns the pipeline, conversion, usage and sales KPIs, and closing of opportunities. Deployment and onboarding ownership is limited to GET; subsequent deployments sit with the responsible Customer Success teams. WHY WORK HERE: - Competitive salary + ESOP. - Significant career development and global growth opportunities. - Fully flexible working arrangements with a well-stocked office in Redfern. - Highly meritocratic, non-bureaucratic and no-ego work culture. - The opportunity to work on complex, meaningful products and real-world problems. - The opportunity to play a direct, critical role in the trajectory of a high-growth company. - Neara values diversity, belonging and equal employment opportunities. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.