Business Operations Manager at IT & Climate NGO

🌍 Business Operations Manager at IT & Climate NGO (Remote | English)

Location : Fully Remote; All countries in Southern Africa and Eastern Europe are welcome Employment Type : Full-Time employee, on an annual contract term, with option to renew Languages Required : English proficiency is mandatory Experience Required : Mid-level, with a minimum of 8 years of experience in an Operations-related role Salary Range : Market-related (by region), and based on experience Reports to : OET Board Works Closely With : Finance Manager, Heads of Department Work Travel Requirements : None Start Date Goal : 1 September 2026 (or sooner; notice-dependent)

🧭 About Us:

Open Energy Transition (OET) is a non-profit organization advancing the global energy transition by developing innovative open-source tools and data solutions for energy and grid planning. Our vision is to make open approaches the global standard by 2030, enabling energy planning that is more accessible, transparent, and effective. This shift is essential to better guide trillion dollar worth public and private investment toward affordable, sustainable, and secure energy systems. This is not a distant aspiration; our work is already being adopted by leading system operators, regulators, and philanthropic partners.

We’re a remote-first, mission-driven, registered non-profit, comprising around 50 highly-skilled and motivated professionals from all around the world! Our culture is built on trust, autonomy, and collaborative professionalism.

We thrive in a fast-paced, distributed environment, where communication is clear, empathy is second nature, and each of us takes full ownership of our work. We work independently, but also collaborate easily when appropriate.

We are currently looking for a Business Operations Manager to take ownership of our operational management system, and help ensure that OET continues to operate effectively, efficiently, and compliantly as we grow.

To learn more about OET and our team, you can visit our website , and browse around our Handbook .

🎯 About the Role:

In the past two years, OET has grown from 20 to over 50 team members. We are now at a crucial crossroads where our operational systems, including our newly created ISMS, need to be further professionalized such that we can maintain or improve operational efficiency as we grow further.

To do so, we are looking for an experienced builder, who enjoys continuously looking for the weakest links in our operational systems and proactively addresses these, by improving existing systems or building new ones from the ground up. In this role, you will build the scaffolding that enables continuing OET success.

Your main purpose in this role is to take ownership of OET's operational processes across the board. This includes ISO27001 management system, business compliance activities, organizational risk mitigation strategies, operational governance, vendor management processes, and cross-functional operational initiatives.

You will play a key role in ensuring that important operational responsibilities are managed consistently and effectively, while reducing the administrative burden currently carried by our Department Heads and senior leaders, who you will work closely with.

You will be responsible for maintaining and improving the systems, processes, documentation, and operational practices that enable our distributed team to work effectively. This includes coordinating our annual ISO audit and accreditation renewal process, managing evidence collection and audit preparation, maintaining risk registers and policies, overseeing vendor reviews, and helping drive operational improvements across the organization.

Exciting activities include improving company-wide operational processes, strengthening our governance systems, introducing efficiencies through automation and documentation, supporting strategic operational initiatives, and helping ensure that OET's operational foundations continue to be effective and scale appropriately as we grow.

The ideal candidate is comfortable working autonomously and fully remotely as part of a dedicated, distributed team, and enjoys creating clarity, structure, and momentum across complex operational work. They are highly organized, proactive, and practical, and are equally comfortable coordinating an audit, improving a process, managing a project, providing operational recommendations to our Senior Leadership Team, or following up on operational actions across multiple teams.

This role requires a high degree of ownership, professionalism, attention to detail, self-management, and follow-through. Strong written communication skills are particularly important, as much of our work happens asynchronously across multiple time zones. Accurate record-keeping and documentation are also required, as we are cloud-based, and our operations align with ISO standards.

Please note that this role does not include ownership of People Operations, HR, Payroll, Finance, Accounting, Sales, Business Development, Marketing, or Customer Success activities. These functions are at times associated with “Operations” roles, however we have ensured to outline exactly what the focus of this particular Business Operations Manager role encompasses, and how it fits into our existing team.

We’re all about transparency, and want to give you the best possible opportunity to prepare for any potential interviews. To learn a bit more about the people you'll be working most closely with, click here:

Our CEO, Max Parzen Our Head of People, Quintin Coetzee Our Finance Manager, Maria Shaetonhodi Our Head of Research & Market Development, Harry van der Weijde Our Head of Software Engineering, Sid Krishna

🛠️ Your Key Responsibilities:

• Maintain and improve operational processes, documentation, and governance processes
• Manage and maintain company risk registers, ensuring risks are appropriately documented, reviewed, and tracked
• Coordinate and drive company-wide operational initiatives and cross-functional projects. This includes managing the use of our OpenProject PM tool, across various teams
• Work closely with Department Heads to improve operational effectiveness and reduce their administrative overhead
• Identify oppor