Hardware Operations Program Manager

Reports to: Director of Manufacturing Operations & Quality

Department: Operations

Location: Onsite in Littleton, CO with up to 25% international travel

About Emporia Energy

Emporia is a leading technology company revolutionizing home energy by providing affordable, integrated solutions that empower homeowners to optimize energy usage to reduce costs and carbon footprint. Emporia’s Home Energy Management Platform is a powerful software system that connects our Vue Home Energy Monitor, Level 2 EV Charger, Smart Plugs, Home Battery, and third-party thermostats and appliances. By automating energy use through real-time monitoring and scheduling, the platform optimizes consumption, reduces costs, and simplifies home energy management—all within one intuitive app.  With over 400,000 U.S. homes running Emporia’s energy management and EV charging hardware, we are now launching a national Third-Party Owned (TPO) home battery Virtual Power Plant — placing industrial-rated home batteries in residential homes to deliver power redundancy, utility cost savings, and grid peak demand services. By reducing energy waste and saving customers money, we’re helping create a healthier planet and a brighter future. For more information, visit emporiaenergy.com. 

Mission, Vision and Values

Emporia was founded in 2018 with a clear purpose to revolutionize home energy, generate tangible customer savings, and accelerate the transition to a lower carbon future. We are striving to become the world's leading home energy management platform and build the largest virtual power plant.

• Customers First: We deliver exceptional service with empathy and responsiveness, building lasting trust in every interaction.
• Own the Outcome: We think like owners, taking responsibility for results and holding ourselves and each other accountable.
• Win Together: We succeed together through honesty, humility and humanity.
• Grit Gets it Done: We work hard, stay passionate, and persevere through challenges.
• Better Every Day: We challenge the status quo, take smart risks and aim to improve 1% every day.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Hardware Operations Program Manager (OPM) who will lead New Product Introduction (NPI) for new programs while securing a resilient, high-performance global supply chain, ensuring that products are not only launched successfully but also maintained with rigor through their entire lifecycle. The OPM serves as the strategic lead across Engineering, Product Management, and Finance to ensure operational readiness, rigorous supplier quality, and long-term supply continuity from first build through mass production, sustaining updates, and final end-of-life.

The ideal candidate has personally shipped a hardware product from concept through mass production and eventual sunsetting, is comfortable owning outcomes end-to-end, and thrives amid an ever-changing supply chain and market. You are just as passionate about driving continuous improvement and long-term reliability in post-launch products as you are about the initial launch. You are flexible, well-rounded, self-motivated, and detail-oriented, with a breadth of technical understanding across Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain, and comfortable wearing many hats in a startup environment.

Core Responsibilities & Coordination

New Product Introduction (NPI)

• Spearhead and influence cross-functional coordination and communication between Engineering, Product Management, Supply Chain, Quality, and Manufacturing to drive overall system readiness through each product lifecycle phase.
• Own operational readiness for new production: plan and execute production validation builds (EVT/DVT/PVT), mass-production readiness and sign-off, and the transition to scaling and sustaining high-volume production.
• Manage the overall capacity plan, including coordination of equipment, fixtures, and materials for ramp.
• Drive solutions and schedule to problems: develop clear problem statements, project requirements, milestone schedules, and documentation to support decision-making and facilitate implementation.
• Develop, optimize, track, and communicate integrated program schedules, effectively managing dependencies and handoffs.
• Identify technical and operational risks across the program and drive mitigation strategies directly with critical stakeholders.

Sustaining, Supplier Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Drive global supply chain resilience and continuity by identifying potential bottlenecks and implementing proactive risk management strategies across the tier-1 and tier-2 supplier base.
• Lead strategic sourcing initiatives and commercial negotiations with contract manufacturers and component suppliers to optimize total cost of ownership and ensure favorable terms.
• Own the relationship with overseas contract manufacturers to execute the production plan against sales demand, ensuring on-time delivery and high-quality output.
• Coordinate and support ongoing manufacturing production activities, including process improvements, cost-reduction opportunities, and second-source qualification.
• Work closely with Engineering to guide development, validation, and implementation of product refreshes or redesigns.
• Support the PLM-based change process (ECO, Deviation, MCO, and similar changes) and ensure all changes are properly implemented at contract manufacturing and supplier partners.
• Partner with the Product team on end-of-life (EOL) planning and transitions for existing products, with the goal of eliminating excess materials at EOL.

Cross-Functional & General

• Be proactive, pay attention to the details, and enable teams across different functions to make smart, timely decisions; stay on top of many moving pieces without letting anything drop.
• Create reports from company systems (Google Workspace and similar tools) and provide reporting as needed.
• Emporia is a startup — this role requires wearing many hats, and this description does not capture every assignment.

Required Qualifications

• BS or higher in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing & Operations Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Proven track record of supply chain optimization, strategic sourcing, and managing complex vendor relationships in a high-growth environment.
• 7+ years of experience in Operations/Program Management roles in the consumer electronics industry, having personally owned a product end-to-end — from initial concept through mass production and eventual sunsetting/EOL — with on-site factory experience.
• Experience working with overseas ODM/JDM contract manufacturers and suppliers at scale; experience with partners in India is a plus.
• Familiarity with consumer electronics manufacturing processes and phase-gate development (EVT, DVT, PVT).
• AI-native working style: comfortable using AI tools to accelerate product research, ingest and synthesize data across multiple platforms and systems, and draft requirements and documentation.
• Self-motivated, with strong problem-solving skills and a track record of driving issues to resolution.
• Strong cross-functional relationship-building skills across technical and non-technical teams.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical issues clearly to an executive audience.
• Versed in project planning tools such as Smartsheet; familiar with Jira and Confluence for issue tracking and project summaries.
• Familiarity with PLM systems for BOM and ECO/MCO management, such as Arena.
• Ability to travel internationally to contract manufacturing partners and suppliers, up to approximately 25% of the time. 

What We Offer

💰 Compensation: The expected base salary range is $130,000 - $150,000, 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, employee stock option program, 401(k), paid holidays, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave and discounts on Emporia products and partner offerings.

📈 Career Growth: Be part of a fast-growing company at the forefront of home energy innovation.

Emporia Energy is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, service in the military, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. We will make reasonable accommodations for any qualified applicant with a disability, provided that the individual is otherwise qualified to safely perform the essential functions of the job with or without accommodation and that the accommodation would not impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business. Please let us know if you believe you require reasonable accommodation, or if you would like assistance to complete an application or to participate in an interview at the company.

New employees will be required to successfully complete a background check.

Any communication to applicants relating to the Emporia Energy hiring process will only come from email addresses with the domains emporiaenergy.com or [email protected]. If in the course of the application or hiring process with Emporia Energy you are contacted through another domain, are requested to provide banking or other sensitive information, or you note any other suspicious activity, please contact [email protected].