Octopus Hydrogen

We're building products to support the production of green hydrogen. This will help decarbonise various sectors such as HGVs, transport, and aviation. It's also much more interesting than just building another website!

The priorities of the company are clear and I'm empowered to make decisions about what to work on according to these. Equally I trust everyone else in the company to know what they are doing, and to be doing the best job that they can. We have regular catch ups and everyone is open and honest.

I can work from home, with occasional trips to the office. I currently work 4 days a week and can be flexible within those too; it's ok to take a long lunch break to go for a run and make up the hours later. As long as I let my coworkers know when I'm available / unavailable, I can work the hours that suit me.

I have found my home at Octopus Hydrogen. I get to do the work I enjoy while also working towards real world goals that I am hugely passionate about. The tech is exciting, modern and well considered. The goal is potentially world changing. We are at the very forefront of optimising the future of fuel.

We are a small multi-disciplinary team at Octopus Hydrogen. Everyone is keen and willing to jump into tasks to solve problems outside their own field. There is good synergy between software and field engineering and the management structure is flat leading to very good communication between all team members.

Remote working is the norm at Octopus Hydrogen. I have three young children and live an hour or so from the office. There have been no issues with me taking time away from the computer to do the school run or attend various school and/or doctors appointments as required. I decide how I fit work and office visits around my families needs and I see others in the team doing the same. We are all passionate about the goals of the company so the work gets done but there has been absolutely no pressure to make up hours or fit family around work (quite the opposite in fact).

When I joined Octopus Hydrogen I knew almost nothing about the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as my background was in more traditional software engineering. Over the past few months, with the support of the leadership team, we've worked together to build an innovative working prototype using the latest AWS technologies. It's been great to pick up new skills and learn exciting new technologies.

I've never worked at a company where communication is so honest and open. Everyone is very motivated and switched-on, but also willing to admit when they don't know something or are struggling to solve a problem. We have a weekly company-wide catch-up where everyone gives an update on their area of the business so we all have a shared understanding of what's going on.

The leadership team places a huge amount of trust in everyone to make decisions and take ownership of their work. There are no top-down instructions and everyone is responsible for deciding how to approach a problem, and which problems are most important to tackle.