Kraken is the technology tentacle of the Octopus Energy Group.
About the Opportunity
At Kraken Technologies we’re looking to revolutionise the energy system to make power cheaper, greener and better for people around the world. Our tech platform ‘Kraken’ is already licensed to support 25 million customer accounts in 9 countries, and we aim to serve 100 million globally by 2027.
Our Technology Team has grown extremely quickly as a result, tripling in size within the last 18 months. With this rapid growth, we are looking for proactive Product Managers to join our team and work with our developers, ensuring what they do has the highest impact for our customers.
A core part of Kraken is its API, to which clients, partners and customers can connect and through which they make many millions of requests each day. Although other development teams are responsible for the functionality delivered via the API, we consider the platform on which it runs to be a product in its own right. The API team owns the authentication mechanisms used to access the API, the development standards and documentation, its monitoring and performance and they provide consultancy and guidance to other development teams across the globe.
We need someone to own the API product, set out its vision and direction and to ensure our developers are working optimally towards our unified mission. You’ll need to be a self-starter: someone who sees a problem and can’t help but want to fix it! You’ll be well organised, working methodically and clearly to ensure projects go from inception to completion.
You’ll work within our core engineering department, within a team of around 7 developers, ensuring that our APIs are fit for today and the future and can deliver Kraken’s functionality reliably, swiftly and consistently whether they are used in Europe, the US, Asia or Australia.
What you’ll do
- Liaise with tech, operations, our clients and others to identify new features in Kraken’s API that need to be built, enhanced or fixed. You’ll spot problems, take ownership and see them through to resolution.
- Gather technical requirements from internal and external stakeholders, define the approach and help write pitch documents so developers can hit the ground running and you’ll support them during a project.
- Own the backlog of work to support development of the API. We use Asana to keep track and prioritise what’s up next and what’s still to-do.
- Help report on progress of projects, new features and your team’s roadmap across the wider organisation.
- Help teams that are working on front-line support to quickly resolve issues.
- Contribute to improving the Product Team, including thinking strategically and supporting other team members.
- We put the customer first wherever we are in the business and work empathetically with one another to deliver the best possible outcomes.
What you’ll need
- To be able to recognise what needs to be done (and, just as importantly, what doesn’t need to be done right now) based on the overall goals of the team and our strategic direction.
- To be able to work in a dynamic environment. Fantastic ideas come from everywhere in Kraken Technologies, so you’ll need to be able to spot and harness them. Experience in a fast-paced start-up or scale-up would be a plus.
- To be curious and willing to roll up your sleeves. For example, this might mean learning some basic development skills; helping to build out and prioritise our tech hiring roadmap; using SQL to gain further understanding of a problem; or even editing some code.
- To have excellent written and verbal communication skills and an ability to interact with people with varying levels of technical knowledge.
- To understand API terminology and concepts such as GraphQL, REST, rate limiting, OAuth, OpenID Connect, HTTPS, etc.
- To (ideally) have knowledge of the energy industry, whether that’s in the UK or globally.
Why else you’ll love about us
- Wondering what the salary for this role is? Just ask us! On a call with one of our recruiters it’s something we always cover as we genuinely want to match your experience with the correct salary. The reason why we don’t advertise is because we honestly have a degree of flexibility and would never want salary to be a reason why someone doesn’t apply to Octopus - what’s more important to us is finding the right octofit!
- Octopus Energy is a unique culture. An organisation where people learn, decide, and build quicker. Where people work with autonomy, alongside a wide range of amazing co-owners, on projects that break new ground. We want your hard work to be rewarded with perks you actually care about! We won best company to work for in 2022, on Glassdoor we we’re voted 50 best places to work in 2022 and our Group CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people
- Visit our perks hub - Octopus Employee Benefits
We would prefer someone who can work in our London office but will consider remote candidates. However, you do need to be able to work in the UK.
We’re very excited to be growing our team. We’re looking for skills and experience to help shape and define the future of not only our team, but the wider business at a global scale. If you’re reading this and grinning, please apply! There are huge challenges to tackle, and we need amazing people who are keen to get stuck in.
If this sounds like you then we’d love to hear from you.
Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we hire. Across Octopus, we’re looking for genuinely decent people who are honest and empathetic. Our people are our strongest asset and the unique skills and perspectives people bring to the team are the driving force of our success. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.
