How to apply for Staff Engineer - Virtual Assembly Line (m/f/d)

About 1KOMMA5°

1KOMMA5° builds a virtual power plant that connects solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility to the electricity market in real time. The company aims to transition 1.5 million households to renewable energy by 2030 and has over 3,000 employees across more than 80 locations. Working here means contributing to an integrated energy system rather than isolated hardware.

About the role

This staff engineer role leads technical direction for the Virtual Assembly Line (VAL) team, which builds growth and operations systems including MarTech, CRM, payment, fulfillment, and installation. You will own architecture decisions across these domains and ensure the team executes consistently. The work directly supports scaling 1KOMMA5°'s operations globally with efficiency and quality.

A typical day

A typical day might involve reviewing architecture proposals for CRM or payment systems, meeting with product leads to align technical direction, and unblocking engineers on fulfillment or installation features. You would also spend time documenting decisions and checking that the team's execution matches the agreed architecture. Exact routines depend on the team, so ask about meeting cadence and collaboration tools during interviews.

Who 1KOMMA5° is looking for

• Experience owning technical direction across multiple engineering domains, ideally in growth, operations, or platform teams.
• Background with CRM, payment, fulfillment, or installation systems, or similar operational software at scale.
• Comfortable aligning architecture with product direction and holding a team accountable for consistent execution.
• Able to work remotely and collaborate across distributed teams in different time zones.

Tips for this application

• Read the full job description on 1KOMMA5°'s careers page to see the complete list of responsibilities, since the provided text cuts off mid-sentence.
• In your application, name specific systems you have built or led in MarTech, CRM, payment, fulfillment, or installation.
• Explain how you have scaled operations software globally or across many locations, similar to 1KOMMA5°'s 80+ sites.
• Reference Heartbeat AI or the virtual power plant concept to show you understand the company's core product.
• If you have worked with energy, hardware, or marketplace platforms, highlight that experience explicitly.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your experience setting technical direction across multiple engineering domains, with examples of architecture decisions you owned.', 'How you have built or scaled growth and operations systems such as CRM, payment, or fulfillment platforms.', 'Your approach to aligning engineering execution with product goals and holding teams accountable.', "Why you want to work on 1KOMMA5°'s virtual power plant and virtual assembly line specifically, not just any climate tech role."]

Research before applying

• Study 1KOMMA5°'s Heartbeat AI and how the virtual power plant connects solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility to the electricity market.
• Look up the company's product and tech team structure, and any public engineering blog posts or talks.
• Understand the Virtual Assembly Line concept by reading the full job description and any related materials on their careers site.
• Check 1KOMMA5°'s recent news, funding, and expansion to see where they are growing operationally.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would set technical direction for a team that spans MarTech, CRM, payment, fulfillment, and installation systems.
• A time you made an architecture decision that conflicted with product direction and how you resolved it.
• Your experience scaling operational software across many locations or regions.
• How you ensure consistent execution of technical decisions across a distributed team.
• What you know about 1KOMMA5°'s Heartbeat AI and virtual power plant, and how VAL supports it.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying without reading the full job description, which may contain key requirements missing from the truncated text.
• Focusing only on general staff engineer skills without connecting them to growth, operations, or energy systems.
• Ignoring the remote and global aspect of the role, such as failing to mention experience working across time zones or distributed teams.