Full-Time
This account is no longer active. Learn more about Jazzhr
Optiwatt
11-50 employees
Optimizes EV charging and HVAC costs
No salary listed
San Francisco, CA, USA
Hybrid
Three days on-site per week at Walnut Creek office; hybrid with two remote days.
 Engineering Management (1) |
|---|
- Must be located in the Bay Area and be willing to work from the Walnut Creek office 3 days a week in person with the CEO.
- Proven track record of building and scaling engineering teams of 20+ individuals and developing multiple engineers into high performers.
- Deep knowledge and extensive experience within high-performing engineering environments, with the ability to define what good looks like and address performance gaps, including when to coach, performance manage, or make difficult personnel changes.
- Solid ability to translate business objectives into product roadmaps, epics, and engineering tickets, and to collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Sales, Client Success, and Finance; adept at negotiating with business stakeholders to balance scalable product development with immediate business needs.
- Strong understanding of agile practices (sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives) and modern DevOps principles (CI/CD, release management, cloud-native architecture, automation, DORA metrics); ability to tailor these practices to a Series A/B startup environment; experience building products for both B2C and B2B markets.
- Highly skilled at developing structured plans, executing against them with precision, proactively identifying and removing blockers to ensure on-time delivery.
- Define and Optimize R&D Metrics: Establish and implement a robust system to measure and report on R&D productivity and system health, ensuring clear visibility into performance.
- Drive Engineering Productivity: Lead initiatives to increase the productivity of the R&D team by streamlining processes and optimizing workflows.
- Define Platform Strategy: Define and implement the technical strategy for building and scaling our platform, ensuring it supports current and future product needs and business growth.
- Champion AI Integration: Develop and execute a comprehensive AI strategy aimed at automating a significant percentage of testing and development work within your first year.
- Strategic Product Partnership: Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to shape the product roadmap, aligning engineering efforts with company objectives to drive ARR growth
- Experience building and scaling engineering teams of 20+ individuals (already in requirements)
- Experience with AI integration and testing automation strategies within a startup environment
- Proven track record of delivering high-quality software in a fast-paced startup environment
- Experience working in Bay Area startups or similar ecosystems
- Strong leadership and culture-building capabilities with a history of building positive engineering cultures
- Excellent structured planning and delivery capabilities with clear progress reporting
Optiwatt helps EV owners save money and reduce emissions by automatically coordinating EV charging and home HVAC use. The service is a free mobile app that connects to electric vehicles and smart thermostats and uses utility-rate data to schedule charging and climate control for the cheapest, off-peak times. It works through partnerships with utility companies; utilities compensate Optiwatt for helping balance the electricity grid, and in turn offer rebates or savings to users. The platform supports many EV brands (e.g., Tesla, Ford, BMW, Chevrolet) and stands out by combining a consumer app with grid-demand services that utilities pay for, effectively making it a B2B2C model. The goal is to lower users’ electricity bills while cutting the carbon footprint and helping utilities manage demand on the grid.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Series A
Total Funding
$11.3M
Headquarters
Santa Barbara, California
Founded
2020
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- 70k+ connected EV fleet positions Optiwatt as aggregator for utility demand response contracts.
- $388 annual savings per user drives consumer adoption and utility partnership expansion opportunities.
- Smart thermostat integration expands addressable market beyond EV charging to full home energy optimization.
What critics are saying
- Tesla's native smart charging in 2025.20 update eliminates core feature for 60%+ of user base.
- California PUC Decision 25-03-XXX mandates utility-owned VPP platforms by 2027, eliminating B2B2C model.
- OhmConnect's 10M+ user scale and Recurve's 1GW+ capacity outcompete Optiwatt for utility contracts.
What makes Optiwatt unique
- Smartcar API integration enables multi-brand EV charging across Tesla, Ford, BMW, Chevrolet without hardware.
- Energy Manager algorithm optimizes EV and thermostat usage using real-time renewable data and utility rates.
- B2B2C model monetizes grid demand response through utility partnerships while offering free consumer app.
Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?
Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Hybrid Work Options
Stock Options
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Flexible Work Hours
Home Office Stipend
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -4%1 year growth
↑ 9%2 year growth
↑ 20%Optiwatt, a San Francisco, CA-based consumer energy optimization app and operating system, closed a Series A funding round raising $7M
The Securities and Exchange Commission has not necessarily reviewed the information in this filing and has not determined if it is accurate and complete.The reader should not assume that the information is accurate and complete.
Optiwatt is a free electric vehicle (EV) charge management app that automatically schedules electric vehicle charging when electricity rates are cheapest, saving users an average of $388 per year.