Dante DeMeo – Engineering and Product Manager
Meet the leader behind the meters. As Engineering and Product Manager at Sense, Dante is focused on embedding Sense software into next-gen smart meters and connecting the dots between devices, utilities, and homes.
About your work at Sense
What is your role and what’s your day to day like?
I’m an Engineering and Product Manager at Sense. I manage the Meters and Utilities team where we work to build and improve our software running on electric meters and to build the integrations necessary with utilities and meter makers to get everything connected.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Working with such a fantastic group of people towards a common purpose. Everyone here is brilliant and motivated – working together to solve complex problems and trying to make a better future for all.
What has been your proudest moment at Sense?
I’m most proud of my team. They continue to amaze me with their hard work and impeccable results even amidst constantly changing timelines and priorities. They build the foundation on which the rest of our company rests – running Sense on electric meters is the future of Sense and the electric utility industry.
Thoughts on the Energy Industry
What is it that you think most people don’t know/don’t appreciate about the energy industry?
I think most people don’t understand how complex and interconnected the energy industry is. You might think electricity is just made at a power plant and then delivered to houses, but between generation, transmission, distribution, varied loads, electrification, and so much more there is so much going on behind the scenes. Sense is more important now than ever to have intelligence built right into the grid to help consumers manage their electricity usage and utilities manage their grid infrastructure.
What advice would you have for someone thinking about entering the climate-tech space?
Just go for it! It’s both exciting and meaningful work. I’d recommend getting a good grounding in science and systems to understand how things work from the ground up. Then find a niche that inspires you – there are so many different fields and disciplines in climate-tech which touches almost every aspect of our lives nowadays. You can find it in familiar spaces like renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission, but also areas you might not realize like agriculture, construction, and transportation with a whole host of different jobs needed to support them.
Life Outside of Work
What was the last book you read?
The Green Rider series by Kristen Britain
Favorite song or genre of music to listen to while working?
I’ve been listening to the latest albums by Chevelle and Three Days Grace most recently.
Take out or dine out? And what’s your favorite meal.
Dine out! There are so many good restaurants near Sense’s office. My wife and I love going to places nearby in Cambridge and Somerville like Sarma, Little Donkey and Si Cara.