Head of Network

About Ember

We're building the future of public transport — convenient, affordable, connected and zero-emission. Our goal is to make it easier and more enjoyable to get from A to B with Ember than it is with your own car.

Ember is a tech company, not a traditional bus operator. We've built a platform that coordinates our entire operation – everything from monitoring vehicles and controlling chargers to selling tickets and calculating ETAs. This allows us to use electric buses more intensively than anyone else in the world, leading to a massive reduction in emissions. It also helps us provide a much better passenger experience, with innovative features like demand-responsive stops.

We’re still tiny, with a handful of routes and 38 buses. The challenge is to scale this 100x whilst staying lean, increasing efficiency and delivering an even better product experience. We’ve raised equity from some of Europe’s leading climate VCs and are looking for mission-driven individuals who want to get on board and help take us to the next level.

The role

As the Head of Network, you'll be designing and optimising our route network across the UK and eventually further afield. This requires deep technical skills, strong intuition, operational acumen and genuine transport enthusiasm. You'll be working directly with the founders and other team leads, with direct responsibilities including:

• Researching and developing route ideas: That means going deep on Google Maps, getting out in the real world to scope out ideas, engaging with local communities, researching existing transport alternatives and figuring out what's possible with our existing fleet/charging infrastructure. You'll get to know esoteric parts of the country's road network like the back of your hand (if you don't know them already!).
• Building timetables: We're not building traditional, static, clock-face timetable where routes are always the same and traffic is ignored. Instead, we're building probabilistic timetables that estimate the usage of each of the stops on our demand-responsive network whilst accounting for traffic variations across days, weeks, and seasons. That comes with technical complexity. We're building in-house tech tools to make this manageable but you should also be comfortable building massive spreadsheets with complex formulae or writing code to support your work. We'll also look for you to input in discussions with our software engineering team on how we keep getting better.
• Managing timetable registration and roll out: We generally run registered bus services, which require us to consult with local councillors and register routes with the Traffic Commissioner. You'll be managing this process. You'll also be responsible for ensuring the data on our routes gets to the right people – think Google Maps, physical bus stop signs, electronic bus stop displays and more.
• Developing an operational plan: A timetable is just the start. Off the back of it, we need to develop an operational plan to deliver it. This might be ensuring charging facilities go live in time, developing driver shift structures, hiring the right number of drivers, fitting out vehicles in time or finding driver rest facilities in entirely new locations. Whilst you'll work with other teams on delivery, you'll be central to figuring out what needs to be done to achieve network growth and co-ordinating it.
• Analysing and optimising existing routes: Launch is just the start. We want to analyse existing routes to understand what is working and what is not, then optimise them with timetable updates. Strong data skills are critical here – we'll expect you to know or learn some SQL to help you to query our raw data – but so is having an intuitive understanding of travel and transport. The data won't necessarily show you why a particular bus stop might not be performing well but thinking about its location within a village might make it obvious.

Diversity and equality

At Ember, we support diversity across our team and customers. We work to ensure every employee feels respected and able to give their best, whether temporary, part-time or full-time. We’re happy to offer flexible working patterns where they make sense, are compassionate when it comes to time off and offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave.

Read more about our approach in our Equal Opportunities Policy.

What’s on offer

As well as a salary of £70,000 - £110,000 per annum, depending on your skills and relevant experience, you'll also be granted share options through an EMI scheme.

How do I apply?

Apply using the form, providing a CV and a cover letter explaining why you're the one.