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Neara is building AI-powered digital twins of electricity grids to help utilities manage rapid energy transitions, renewable integration, and grid resilience. The company recently acquired Zepben to create an integrated platform combining electrical, physical, and risk modeling.
As Director, Grid Connections, you will lead the delivery of the Self-Service Grid Connection Toolkit project, funded by the Australian Government's Grid Enhancing Technology (GET) Grant. This role combines commercial, product, delivery, and customer leadership to validate product-market fit and establish Neara's connection solution across Australian utilities, governments, and agencies.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own overall project accountability, making time, cost, and product trade-offs independently within delegated authority
- Manage Customer Success engineers assigned to the project, setting priorities and coaching delivery on customer discovery, requirements, testing, and deployment
- Collaborate with Product Director, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer to define scalable product expansion and turn customer workflows into actionable requirements
- Lead GET partner relationships to secure data, workflow input, and testing participation; resolve senior stakeholder blockers
- Direct customer readiness and acceptance outcomes, including onboarding, integration coordination, and testing
- Champion the product through technical workshops, demonstrations, and customer discussions; build interest with transmission/distribution network service providers (T/DNSPs) and external users
- Own evidence of product benefits (connection-processing time, engineering effort, application quality, customer experience) and approve case studies
Working Relationships:
- Report to Chief Product Officer on overall platform direction; escalate decisions outside agreed mandate
- Interface with Delivery Lead (Project Manager) who owns daily schedule, dependencies, risk/cost tracking, and grant reporting
- Collaborate with Engineering on priorities and customer decisions; Engineering owns estimates, architecture, and implementation
- Work alongside AU Sales on pipeline and conversion; your role champions the product rather than owning sales KPIs
Requirements:
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 commercialize and expand 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 prioritized requirements, acceptance criteria, and timely product decisions; 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 (Distributed Energy Resources) integration, network planning, technical product commercialization, government-funded projects, or grid connection policy and reform
