Ryan LaLiberty – Analytics Engineer
I’m responsible for building the data pipelines and doing the analytics work to answer business and product questions — stuff like, what features are being used the most, what devices are using the most energy, who might be a good candidate for testing new features, support metrics, internal engineering metrics, and a lot more. It’s a lot of fun.
About your work at Sense
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I love solving puzzles. Thorny problems are fun, whether that’s converting someone’s open-ended question into real, actionable data, or figuring out the most efficient way to pipe data from one place to another.
How has your role evolved since you started?
I’ve worn a few different hats in my time at Sense: I started on the marketing team as our Community Manager (some might remember me as RyanAtSense) and in-house content creator, responsible for most of our video and social content during that time. From there I became a Product Manager, focused mostly on smart integrations and B2B products, and now I’m in my current role. Through all of it, there’s always been a thread of being on the ground, building things and I’m thankful to Sense for letting me loose on the niches where I can provide the most value.
Thoughts on the Energy Industry
What’s one energy trend you’re excited about?
It’s easier than ever before to build small, decentralized single-home/single-function “nanogrids” for generation and storage. I’m thinking about projects like Low Tech Magazine. Realistically, these don’t move the decarbonization needle at scale on their own, but they’re exciting and fun ways to engage directly with energy systems, understand the complexity, and reduce your footprint (while maybe saving a bit of money).
How does working in climate tech change your perspective on energy use at home?
Simply put – awareness. Prior to this role, I just paid my electric bill as if it was a sunk cost that I had no control over and moved on. Now I know what a kW costs me, where the biggest hogs in my home are, and how to trim the excess where I can. I’m a daily user of the Sense app, spending most of my time in the Power Meter for real-time monitoring or in the Dashboard for usage comparisons.
Life Outside of Work
Favorite song or genre of music to listen to while working?
I listen to a lot of music, in and out of work, and tend to go through phases. Lately it’s been guitar-heavy jazz, players like Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Ben Monder, and Mary Halvorson. Every person who’s into music probably has one album they wish everyone in the world could hear at least once, and mine is I Have the Room Above Her by Paul Motian (drummer), Joe Lovano (saxophonist), and Bill Frisell (guitar). It’s moody and weird, but also exciting and traditional, in a strange quagmire that only this group could produce.
What hobby are you currently into—or wish you had more time for?
I have a lot of hobbies. Like music, they come and go in phases. It’s winter in Maine now so I’m spending most of my free time working on historical scale models, stuff like naval ships, tanks, planes. I build them, paint them, “weather” them so they look real. It’s a time-consuming activity, and really detail oriented, but somehow also incredibly relaxing. I think they look cool to display, but my wife says we can’t have any more battleships in the living room…
