Senior Smart Metering Expert Role at Growing Cleantech Firm in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Career Positioning in a High-Growth Sector
This is a senior individual-contributor/lead role at the intersection of energy regulation, product management, and hardware operations — a rare and highly specialized profile. The German energy transition is one of the most complex regulatory environments in Europe, making expertise here extremely portable and valuable across utilities, cleantech, and grid operators.
Skills You'll Build:
- Deep expertise in German energy law (§14a EnWG, MsbG, EEG) — increasingly in demand as smart metering mandates expand
- End-to-end product ownership bridging regulation, engineering, and field deployment
- Stakeholder management with DSOs, metering point operators, and regulatory bodies
- Hardware rollout and certification coordination — a niche but growing competency in the IoT/energy space
Compensation: No salary is disclosed, which is a mild red flag for transparency. For a 3+ year specialist role at a German scaleup of this size, market benchmarks typically range from €65,000–€90,000 annually depending on seniority. Candidates should negotiate based on the highly specialized regulatory knowledge required.
Company Stage & Culture: 1KOMMA5° is a fast-scaling European cleantech company (3,000+ employees, 80+ locations) — firmly in growth/scaleup territory. Expect a high-autonomy, high-ambiguity environment with strong mission alignment but potentially fast-changing priorities. Direct access to decision-makers is a genuine green flag for career visibility and impact.
Green Flags: Mission-driven, international team, genuine regulatory complexity to master. Watch for: No salary transparency, rapid scaling can mean process immaturity.
1KOMMA5°
At 1KOMMA5°, we pursue a clear vision: Living on wind and sunlight forever for free. To make this a reality, we are building the energy system of the future with Heartbeat AI.
We bring together regional craftsmanship and scalable software: We don't think of solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility as isolated components, but control them as an intelligent, integrated overall system in our virtual power plant. Directly connected to the electricity market – in real time, fully automated. This way, energy is used when it is available from renewables and particularly cost-effective. By 2030, our goal is to transition 1.5 million households to renewable energies. Over 3,000 people are working towards this every day, at more than 80 locations worldwide, from Finland to Australia.
Want to take responsibility and build solutions that truly matter? Apply now and help us shape the energy world of tomorrow.
Learn more about our Product & Tech team!
Your Role
As the energy transition accelerates, flexibilities in the low-voltage grid become increasingly important — and smart metering and steering of distributed energy resources sit at the heart of this shift. You take a central role in our end-to-end steering proposition, turning regulatory complexity into scalable, compliant, and customer-friendly products at the intersection of regulation, product, hardware, and field operations.
Be the Expert on Smart Metering & Steering Regulation: Act as the first point of contact — internally and externally — for regulatory developments such as §14a EnWG, §9 EEG, §21 EnWG, and §118 Abs. 6 EnWG. Interpret legal frameworks, VDE FNN requirements, BNetzA rulings, and BDEW Guidelines, and help shape the rules of tomorrow through active industry engagement.
Translate Regulation into Product Requirements: Define and prioritize development requirements for our engineering teams to ensure Heartbeat AI and connected hardware (e.g. §14a Steuerbox + Smart Meter) meets all compliance and performance standards.
Drive Hardware Strategy and Rollout: Coordinate testing and lab capacities, prepare key hardware decisions, and operationalize the rollout of intelligent metering systems and Steuerboxen across our customer segment.
Manage Service Providers and Market Partners: Own relationships with external service providers as well as DSOs and metering point operators, ensuring smooth collaboration and reliable market communication processes.
Lead Cross-Functional Projects & Monitor Performance: Take overarching project responsibility for steering initiatives, define KPIs, monitor target achievement, and derive optimization measures from data and field feedback.
Your Profile
General:
3+ years of experience in the energy sector with a clear focus on metering and steering
Strong project management skills, leading cross-functional initiatives across internal teams, network and metering point operators, and external service providers
Analytical, structured thinker who can define KPIs and use data to drive decisions
Entrepreneurial, proactive, and comfortable navigating ambiguity and regulatory change
Excellent written and spoken German and English — German is essential given the heavy regulatory and partner interaction
Domain & Regulatory Expertise:
Solid working knowledge of §14a EnWG and the grid-oriented control of consumption and generation assets, as well as the broader regulatory framework (MsbG, §9 EEG, §21 EnWG, §118 Abs. 6 EnWG)
Familiarity with relevant technical standards and guidelines, as well as Marktkommunikationsprozesse and smart metering infrastructure
Experience coordinating hardware testing, lab setups, or certification processes (e.g. for §14a Steuerboxen) is a strong plus
Benefits
Be part of an international, dynamic, and highly motivated team making things happen
Accelerate the energy transition and have a direct impact on our climate
Enjoy direct contact with core decision-makers
Excellent chances of entering full-time at one of Europe's most thriving scaleups
Work remotely (Germany-wide), with offices in Hamburg, Berlin, or Munich
Create a healthy balance alongside your work and enjoy all the benefits of the EGYM Wellpass
Benefits and discounts with Futurebens
Job bike leasing — choose a city bike or e-bike and do something good for the environment
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this role truly remote or do I need to be in a specific city?
Is German language proficiency required?
What level of regulatory knowledge is expected?
What is the salary for this position?
What kind of company is 1KOMMA5° and what is its size?
