Put a spark in your career
Tags: career, climate, developer
Published: 2022-09-20 10:02:15

---
title: Put a spark in your career
published: true
description: The best time to work in energy is right now. And not just to unfuck the planet.
tags: careers, climate, developer
cover_image: https://live.staticflickr.com/3383/3315099391_464544447b_b.jpg
---

The best time to work in energy is right now. It's the original high-tech industry but has been slow-moving. This stagnation, alongside recent transformations, has created the challenges and opportunities that make it a rewarding, engaging, and vital space to work.

Climate change is our generation's biggest problem, but you know that already. Solving that problem was the hook that drew _me_ in, and it remains a daily driver, keeping me engaged. I won't be joining the [chorus of voices convincing you to start your journey on a mission-led career path]([https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/26/tech-to-climate-career-changes-why-these-workers-left-jobs-like-google.html]); you're already convinced. Right now, a confluence of factors is creating massive opportunity, and that's why now is the best time to join us, building in energy.

Decarbonization requires that the industry decentralizes generation and embraces digitization. This industry currently relies on ['test match cricket'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2016-01-35-million-people-didnt-notice-a-thing-dot-dot-dot) as a communication protocol; dragging it towards current technologies is today's most exciting engineering challenge.

The existing grid operates under a century-old assumption that millions of consumers can and will rely on a few large generators. Energy flows in one direction from one place. That assumption is already broken and grows more wrong by the day. As more small local generation comes online, we each become both a source and a consumer of energy. [Incumbents see this as a problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve), while we see that as democratisation; and as a challenge that brings opportunity.

Commercial and industrial energy purchasers already ask for more than the industry and their energy suppliers can provide. They want real-time, high-frequency data from a supplier who measures latency in days and frequencies in half-hours. The physical grid operates at 50Hz, and as a software engineer, you're no stranger to serving inside of 20 milliseconds.

These are seismic shifts for something that underpins everything in our society; these shifts are only now beginning to accelerate, and InRange is taking advantage.

![Messy electricity grid](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xb313xzrnispucfm779v.jpg)

> Image by mckaysavage is licensed under CC BY 2.0

At InRange, we use AI to understand, forecast, and optimize generation and consumption within local energy markets, extracting more value from each electron. The more value we can generate, the quicker we grow and decarbonize.

We're using modern data pipelines to enable high-frequency measurement of renewable generation, hyper-local consumption, and carbon avoidance. Energy consumers need this level of data for real-time, 24/7 matching of their demand with zero-carbon energy.

We're productizing a buying experience that has traditionally been a slow enterprise-led process. Our product pairs the user with AI to deliver our business proposition quickly, efficiently, and with minimal input. Business buyers have tremendous purchasing power, so giving them access to great software allows them to buy more faster.

These technologies and approaches have never been applied to the electricity industry like this before. Our success will write the operating system for the emerging energy market - decentralized, digitized, and decarbonized.

Across the industry, there are exciting opportunities in product, data, and engineering. Beyond "just" a chance to work on an exciting and vital problem, at InRange, we're building a team that holds its values above all else. [Here's what we're looking to hire](http://inrange.io/careers). We'd love to see you join us.