Sense, the United States energy intelligence company, has promoted co-founder Ryan Houlette to Chief Technology Officer. The appointment was announced in June 2026 and places a founding engineer at the head of the company technology organisation.
Houlette, a software architect with more than 30 years of experience, has been central to the company technology platform since its founding. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology, and in the expanded role he will lead the continued development of the company signal intelligence work.
At the centre of that work is Waveform AI, the company proprietary technology that interprets high resolution electrical signals from advanced meters and turns them into real time intelligence for utilities and households. As chief technology officer, Houlette will steer its evolution toward on meter intelligence for the grid edge, an area of growing interest as utilities modernise their networks.
The promotion of a co-founder to the top technology role signals continuity at a company whose product depends on deep, accumulated engineering knowledge. Energy intelligence sits at the intersection of hardware, data science and utility operations, and leadership that carries the original technical vision can be an asset as the business scales its work with grid operators.
For Sense, the timing reflects a broader shift in the energy sector, where advanced metering and distributed energy resources are generating vast amounts of data that utilities are only beginning to use. Companies that can convert that data into actionable intelligence stand to play a growing role in grid management, and a clear technology mandate at executive level supports that ambition.
Houlette early priorities are likely to include advancing the accuracy and reach of the company device level intelligence, deepening integrations with utility partners, and scaling the platform to handle larger volumes of meter data. His long tenure gives him a detailed understanding of both the technology and the market it serves.
The company did not announce other changes to its leadership team in connection with the promotion. It said the move supports its aim of expanding the role of on meter intelligence across both household and utility applications as the grid edge becomes a more active part of the energy system.
The appointment also underscores how central software and machine learning have become to the energy technology sector. What began as a market for hardware devices has increasingly become a contest over data and the intelligence drawn from it, and Sense has positioned its Waveform AI work at the heart of that shift. Elevating the engineer who helped build that capability signals where the company sees its future advantage.
