Vice President, Energy at Zeno

What You’ll Do

Infrastructure Strategy & Deployment

• Oversee strategic rollout of multi-modal charging infrastructure (swap stations, fast chargers, and home chargers) across all target markets.
• Manage development and deployment teams responsible for scouting, install, and commissioning, ensuring infrastructure aligns with Zeno and local requirements.
• Build infrastructure roadmaps for new market entries, beginning with Kenya and expanding to India, East Africa and beyond.
• Drive efficiency across infrastructure deployment and management across all energy products to reduce cost per deployed asset while maintaining reliability and customer satisfaction.

Hardware Evolution & Product Cost-Down

• Collaborate with engineering to drive rigorous value engineering processes focused on lowering BOM cost, improving manufacturability, and extending product lifecycle in demanding environments. The role may take on management responsibility for the charging engineering team in the near to midterm.
• Build structured feedback loops between field ops and product teams to identify and resolve reliability issues, inform future hardware iterations, and improve serviceability.
• Lead pilot testing and validation of new hardware in the field, ensuring operational feasibility and cost-effectiveness before scaling.

Preventive Maintenance & Asset Uptime

• Own reliability and performance of deployed energy infrastructure.
• Build and scale a preventive maintenance program across geographies with associated SOPs, training, and reporting tools.
• Implement fault tracking, automated alerting, and issue response workflows to ensure ≥98% uptime.

P&L, Asset Economics & Commercial Enablement

• Own the Energy business unit’s P&L, including deployment budget, operational expenses, and ROI per site.
• Work cross-functionally to align infra deployment with commercial priorities, ensuring charging enables vehicle sales and service delivery.
• Identify and implement business model improvements that reduce cost or generate revenue from energy assets.

Team Leadership & Cross-Regional Execution

• Lead and develop a high-performing Energy team spanning engineering, maintenance, and deployment across three continents.
• Establish clear goals, communication rhythms, and accountability systems.
• Foster a mission-aligned culture of operational excellence, ruthless execution, first-principles decision making, and a people-forward environment where diverse teams feel empowered, supported, and genuinely enjoy building together

What Success Looks Like (12 Months)

• 150+ new infrastructure sites deployed and operational in Kenya, Uganda and any other markets that Zeno enters, with reliable uptime and SOP compliance.
• Preventive maintenance system fully implemented with measurable reductions in unplanned downtime.
• Hardware cost per unit reduced by ≥20% through value engineering and sourcing.
• Installed cost per site reduced by ≥20% through process engineering and sourcing.
• Infrastructure playbook developed for further expansion into new cities or markets (e.g., India or another African country).
• Full energy business unit P&L and reporting structure operational, with clear roadmap to profitability.

What you Bring

• 12–15 years of experience in large-scale infrastructure deployment, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven track record in energy, EV, utilities, or comparable infrastructure-heavy industries.
• Strong expertise in charging technologies, distributed energy systems, or industrial hardware rollout.
• Demonstrated ability to manage P&L, budgets, and asset economics with a focus on ROI.
• Hands-on experience with value engineering, hardware cost-down, and product lifecycle management.
• Deep understanding of preventive maintenance programs, reliability engineering, and uptime optimization.
• Skilled in leading cross-functional and cross-regional teams, fostering accountability and operational excellence.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, with a data-driven approach to decision-making.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with experience operating in fast-paced, emerging market environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills with internal teams, regulators, and partners
• Inexplicable passion for climate technology and green energy, especially in emerging markets.