Market Operations Manager, SmartBidder

Market Operations Manager, SmartBidder, Boulder, CO (Hybrid) SmartBidder is scaling fast, and the analyst team is the engine behind it. As the Market Operations Manager, you will lead the customer-facing analysts who keep more than 5 GW of battery storage performing in ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and ISONE. You will build and lead a team of analysts and own how it runs: the support rotation, bringing new sites online, workload and coverage planning, and the processes that let us grow the fleet without growing the operational burden.  This is a hands-on leadership role reporting to the SmartBidder Business Lead, with real ownership and visibility across the business. You will work side by side with Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to turn customer and market insight into a better product and a stronger service. The ideal candidate is an experienced people manager and operational leader but technical enough to earn the trust of analysts and engineers and troubleshoot alongside them. If you like building strong teams, solving operational puzzles, and helping a fast-growing business scale, this is the role for you. Our Mission   At Ascend Analytics, our mission is to create sustainable economic value for energy buyers and producers and transform the power industry. Our team combines advanced analytics, cloud-based technology, and deep market expertise to help our clients solve complex challenges across grid reliability, power market volatility, renewable integration, infrastructure development, and energy investment strategy. As a high-growth, private equity-backed company, Ascend continues to expand its market presence while investing in innovation, talent, and scalable solutions for an increasingly dynamic energy market. SmartBidder delivers tailored bid optimization solutions for wholesale assets using advanced probabilistic and AI-driven models that integrate forecasted nodal price trends, asset-specific operational constraints, and risk-adjusted optimization strategies. The platform is trusted to manage over 5 GW of battery storage assets across ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and ISONE. From fully managed to self-service, SmartBidder customers have unparalleled control and flexibility to use built-in strategies based on profit and risk tolerance or integrate their own models into the platform. Your Impact Real influence. Real outcomes. At every level. - Team leadership. Lead, coach, and grow a team of 4-6 SmartBidder analysts. You’ll shape how the team hires, onboards, prioritizes, and develops, and build a culture of collaboration and high accountability. - Operational ownership. Own the analyst side of the support rotation and new site onboardings, from scheduling and handoffs to go-live readiness. Your work keeps customers’ battery and renewable assets bidding smoothly across ISO markets. - Process and innovation. Build the runbooks, checklists, and training materials that make the team faster and more consistent, and bring AI-enabled tools and automation into everyday analyst workflows. - Cross-functional partnership. Be the voice of the analyst team with Product, Engineering, and the Business Lead. Surface recurring customer issues, support QA/UAT and releases, and turn operational insight into better outcomes for customers. Key Responsibilities - Lead, coach, and develop a team of 4-6 SmartBidder analysts, including hiring, onboarding, goal setting, setting prioritization, performance reviews, career development, and building a collaborative, high-accountability team culture.   - Own the analyst side of the SmartBidder support rotation: set the schedule, define expectations and handoffs, monitor coverage and workload, and ensure issues are triaged and escalated appropriately to Engineering. - Oversee new site and customer onboardings. Partner with Engineering to manage timelines, dependencies, and go-live readiness, and ensure a clean handoff into ongoing market operations.   - Plan and balance analyst capacity across customers, ISO markets, trials, and new site launches. As the team scales, organize coverage to deepen expertise without fragmenting customer ownership. - Ensure consistent, high-quality delivery across market operations, strategy configuration, performance monitoring, and reporting. - Support building and maintaining repeatable processes, runbooks, checklists, and training materials that standardize analyst workflows and reduce manual effort, including through automation and AI-enabled tools. - Run project and program management for team initiatives, tracking priorities, owners, and milestones, and communicating status and risks to the Business Lead and cross-functional partners. - Represent the analyst team with Product and Engineering: gather and prioritize recurring customer and operational issues, support QA/UAT and release readiness, and facilitate business validation of new capabilities. - Track operational health metrics such as support volume, response and resolution times, and onboarding cycle times to drive continuous improvement. Required Qualifications - Bachelor's degree in engineering, data science, economics, finance, mathematics, information systems, or another relevant quantitative or technical field, or equivalent professional experience. - 4+ years of relevant professional experience in energy markets, energy software, analytics, technical operations, customer delivery, or a related field. - 1+ years of people management experience, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and leading a team through growth or change. - Demonstrated project and program management skills, such as leading multi-stakeholder rollouts, launches, or implementations with defined timelines, dependencies, and risks. - Sufficient technical fluency to troubleshoot with analysts and engineers and translate between technical and business stakeholders, such as basic SQL or Python, and an understanding of APIs and data feeds. Subject matter expert depth is not required. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly with analysts, engineers, commercial stakeholders, customers, and executives. - Demonstrated ability and interest in using AI-enabled tools to support analysis, documentation, and workflow automation. - Self-directed, highly organized, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment. Preferred Qualifications - Strong familiarity with wholesale electricity markets and ISO operations (i.e., CAISO, ERCOT, PJM, etc.), including bidding or asset optimization for batteries or renewables. - Experience at an energy software company, utility, independent power producer, trading firm, or other market participant. - Experience onboarding customers or managing implementations for complex software or data products. - Experience running a support, operations, or on-call rotation, including triage, escalation, and incident follow-through. - Experience managing a team through a period of scaling, including defining new roles, coverage models, or specialization. - Experience with tools such as Jira, Confluence, Wrike, ServiceNow, Zendesk, or similar project management and support platforms. Our Values  Ascend Analytics promotes a culture of teamwork, inclusion, work-life balance, creative thinking, and learning. We work with five core pillars: - Integrity: We act with honesty and uphold the highest ethical standards, doing the right thing even when it's difficult. - Purpose Driven: We are united with a shared purpose to deliver meaningful impact on our customers, our industry, and the energy transition to a low-carbon future. - Belonging: We foster a respectful, inclusive environment where everyone is valued, diverse perspectives are embraced, and fair opportunities are provided for all. - Innovation: We predict and address new challenges, embracing change and continuous improvement - One Team Mindset: We collaborate across teams and functions, supporting one another and prioritizing shared success over individual wins. Your Value We offer generous, fair compensation, calibrated to your experience and structured to grow with you, along with a comprehensive benefits package: - Medical, dental, and vision coverage. - Life and disability insurance. - Parental leave for growing families. - FSA, HSA, and dependent care accounts. - 401(k) with a 3% non-elective contribution. - Flexible PTO to take time when you need it. Join a team that values your work, supports your growth, and invests in your future! We offer a competitive salary range of $120,000 — $150,000 USD Annually. Compensation is flexible and tailored to your qualifications, relevant experience, and location of hire. But the perks don’t stop there — we’re committed to creating a workplace where people can do meaningful work, grow their careers, and still have a life outside the office. You’ll enjoy a comprehensive benefits package, flexible work hours, a collaborative environment, and real opportunities for advancement.   Collaboration is in our DNA, and we thrive on the energy of working together — the spontaneous ideas, face-to-face teamwork, and culture you can only build in a room. But we also value the focus and freedom that remote flexibility brings. That's why our Boulder, CO office runs on a hybrid schedule (3 days in-office, 2 days remote). Need accommodations? Contact us at [email protected]. Ascend Analytics is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to an inclusive environment for all employees regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, veteran status, disability, or genetic information. Note: We regret that we are currently unable to offer visa sponsorship.