Business Operations Manager at IT & Climate NGO (Remote, Namibia/Botswana | English)

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

Location: Fully Remote; Namibia and Botswana only
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 a similar role
Salary Range: Market-related
Reports to: CEO
Works Closely With: Finance Manager, Heads of Department
Work Travel Requirements: None
Start Date Goal: August/September 2026 (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:

1. Maintain and improve operational processes, documentation, and governance processes
2. Manage and maintain company risk registers, ensuring risks are appropriately documented, reviewed, and tracked
3. Coordinate and drive company-wide operational initiatives and cross-functional projects. This includes managing the use of our OpenProject PM tool, across various teams
4. Work closely with Department Heads to improve operational effectiveness and reduce their administrative overhead
5. Identify opportunities for operational efficiencies, automation (including through the use of AI), standardization, and process improvement. This includes making recommendations for such to our Senior Leadership Team
6. Own and maintain OET's ISO27001 management system and support successful annual audits, and accreditation renewals
7. Coordinate internal ISO audits, evidence collection, corrective actions, and external audit preparation activities, to ensure we consistently meet the standard’s requirements
8. Manage vendor assessment, onboarding, review/reassessment, and relationship processes, in line with ISO requirements
9. Securely maintain operational documentation and knowledge management systems
10. Support business continuity planning and operational resilience initiatives for our global company
11. Monitor compliance with internal operational requirements and external obligations
12. Autonomously track operational actions, initiatives, and follow-up items to ensure successful execution
13. Contribute to improving operational workflows, systems, and documentation across the organization
14. Support leadership with accurate operational reporting, tracking, and coordination activities as required

✅ You'll Be a Great Fit If You Are/Have:

• 8 years minimum experience in business operations, operational excellence, governance, compliance, project management, business administration, or similar operational roles
• Experience maintaining operational processes, governance documentation, and compliance records
• Experience coordinating complex cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Experience owning or managing ISO management systems (or similar), and supporting external audits
• Strong attention to detail and ability to manage operational documentation accurately
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of outcomes in a remote work environment
• Experience managing vendors and external service providers
• Strong written communication skills and experience working well remotely and asynchronously
• Ability to balance operational rigor with pragmatism and efficiency
• A continuous improvement mindset and enthusiasm for improving systems and processes
• Fluency in English (our main working language) is mandatory

💎 Bonus Points For:

• Interest in open-source collaboration and/or the energy sector
• Prior work at a fast growing young company in the IT sector
• Prior work as part of a diverse, fully-remote, distributed team
• Prior work on open-source projects
• Familiarity with donor-funded or non-profit environments
• Experience managing ISO 27001, SOC2, NIST CSF, or similar information security systems
• Experience with operational tooling, project management tools, workflow automation, and documentation platforms
• Experience maintaining risk registers and governance frameworks
• Experience reporting directly to senior leadership
• German language proficiency

A university degree is not required—your experience, communication skills, and work ethic matter most. However, if you happen to have a degree in business administration, operations management, project management, governance, compliance, or a similar field, that may be considered advantageous for this role, during our hiring process.

✨ What We Offer:

1. A flexible, fully-remote work environment where you're trusted to work very autonomously. Zero micro-management, as that goes against our culture.
2. The opportunity to take ownership of a critical function within a growing mission-driven organization and have a meaningful impact on how we operate.
3. A culture that values transparency, empathy, trust, humility, diversity, collaboration, and recognition.
4. We have an open-door policy, and value reciprocal feedback. You'll always know where you stand, and always have the ability to have your voice heard, simply by reaching out.
5. A pretty flat hierarchical structure, where titles are not emphasized, and all contributions are valued.
6. Competitive salary with growth potential
7. Supportive onboarding and training, tailored to your strengths, interests, and career ambitions.
8. The ability to be part of our formation! We're still growing, changing, and improving. Anyone who is part of our team now is able to meaningfully contribute towards our culture, and processes. We're open to all suggestions, and take them seriously!

📝 What Our Hiring Process Entails:

We take hiring seriously, and want to bring on candidates who will contribute positively towards our culture just as much as they will succeed in their roles.

Also, we don't only want to have good outcomes from you. We also want you to feel happy and fulfilled in your position. That means we have a structured process to determine best fit. Our hiring process is as follows:

• Candidates apply via Greenhouse, and include as much information as is possible and comfortable.
• Various OET team members will shortlist candidates in our ATS.
• Certain shortlisted candidates will be contacted to arrange a screening call.
• Screening calls are conducted, and feature a max. 30 minute chat with our People Team.
• Certain candidates will go through to a first-round interview, of max. 1 hour, with our People Team. This interview will screen for a combination of competency and culture fit.
• Finalists will go through to a second-round interview, of max. 1 hour, with the OETers with whom they'll work most closely.
• Bonus round - there may be a short written assignment, depending on the role.
• The chosen candidate will be provided with an offer letter, and opportunity to ask any questions.
• Onboarding with our People Team begins.
• Your start date arrives!

➡️ How to Apply:

If you're excited to take ownership of company-wide operations and help build the systems, processes, and governance that enable OET to scale effectively, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit an application via Greenhouse (our ATS). All applications are reviewed there. If you have any questions about OET or the role, we'd be happy to answer them should we invite you to take part in a screening call or interview.

Before you apply, please ensure that you are a fit for all the mandatory requirements for this role.

Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive, we are not able to respond to individual emails or LinkedIn requests. Kindly submit your application via Greenhouse, and we will shortlist and reach out to candidates.

If you have not received a response within 2 weeks of submitting your application, please consider it unsuccessful at this point in time. We may, however, still reach out in future. Our team maintains Talent Pools, containing candidates shortlisted for contact for future roles that may arise.

We look forward to meeting the next person who will become an invaluable part of our team! Thank you for your time, and for considering joining OET.

If this role is not for you, feel free to check back later for any future positions that may have been posted.