Vice President, Energy

Start-Date:
Immediate

Location:
Nairobi County, Kenya | Global Scope

About Zeno

An unprecedented energy transition has begun. To meet 2040 net zero goals, over 2 billion electric two-wheelers (motorcycles) must be sold and $11 trillion in fuel consumption replaced. Zeno is building a tech platform to electrify this two-wheeler market, currently responsible for more than 4% of the world's GHG emissions. Our mission is to accelerate the energy transition and democratize the benefits across Africa, India, and Latin America. With a focus on East Africa as a starting point, Zeno is building a new energy ecosystem with ground-up development of a fundamentally better electric motorcycle and associated battery swap network to drive a better experience for our customers.

The Role:

The VP of Energy will own the full lifecycle of Zeno's energy infrastructure and product portfolio—including site development, hardware evolution, cost optimization, preventive maintenance, and asset ROI. This role will work closely with cross-functional teams across Kenya, India, and North America to deploy and operate a high-performing, reliable, and profitable energy network that enables vehicle growth and supports commercial success.

Reporting to the CEO this is a key executive role at Zeno—it is a focused leadership position responsible for building Zeno's Energy business into a core driver of growth, reliability, and profitability with the expectation that as a key executive, you will contribute to and support larger company wide planning, decision making and provision of leadership to other parts of the organization as needed while consistently serving as a mentor and role model to employees and teams across the company.

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.

Benefits

• Competitive salary based on experience
• Company-sponsored healthcare plan
• Opportunity to work with a world-class team of engineers, operators, and entrepreneurs from across the globe
• Be part of the inevitable trillion-dollar transition of two-wheelers to electric