Transform Your Future: Celebrating Engineers Week 2026

National Engineers Week 2026 celebrates the theme “Transform Your Future.” Engineering doesn’t just shape infrastructure, technology, or systems. It shapes opportunities, community resilience, and what’s possible for future generations.

As our company continues to grow through recent acquisitions, we’ve welcomed exceptional engineering talent whose expertise deepens our capabilities and accelerates our impact. This week, we’re spotlighting five engineers who are shaping what’s next for our clients, partners, and the communities we serve.

Meet the Engineers Shaping What’s Next

Jennifer Ignacio, Senior Director | RI Shifted Energy DERMS

Jen brings deep expertise in building design and energy systems, backed by degrees in structural, mechanical, and industrial engineering and an MBA focused on sustainability. As our subject matter expert and quality assurance lead, she ensures technical rigor across program design and implementation. Her experience spans the technical development and fulfillment of energy programs, distributed energy resource (DER) design and integration, and operations and program management.

Jen’s work helps utilities and partners deploy reliable, scalable solutions that advance grid flexibility and performance. She is passionate about equity, access, conservation, sustainability, and gender parity, and volunteers with organizations focused on environmental restoration and expanding opportunities in STEM.

Justin Miller, Principal Software Engineer | RI Shifted Energy DERMS

Justin brings expertise in distributed energy systems and cloud-native software architecture, backed by a degree in computer science and more than a decade of professional experience. As Principal Software Engineer, he leads the architecture and evolution of the RI Shifted Energy DERMS platform. His career has centered on sustainability and grid modernization, including ARPA-E–supported research focused on reducing building energy consumption and application development for a Hawaiian environmental restoration nonprofit. 

Justin oversees the development of advanced Virtual Power Plant (VPP) and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) capabilities within the Grid Edge Orchestrator platform. He designs and implements scalable cloud-based systems that ingest DER telemetry, orchestrate dispatch across heterogeneous device fleets, and refine forecasting and load-shift algorithms to help utilities and partners translate grid strategy into reliable, high-performing grid solutions.

Kahael Lange, Software Engineer | RI Shifted Energy DERMS

Kahael brings expertise in software engineering and user-centered design, with 10 years of experience in tech and IT, including 5 years working in fast-paced startup environments. As a software engineer on the RI Shifted Energy DERMS Platform team, he leads UI and UX development for the software portal, ensuring the platform is intuitive, responsive, and aligned with client needs.  

His experience in software testing and automated tests further strengthens the reliability and quality of the platform, ensuring robust performance across all user interactions. By bridging technical functionality and user experience, Kahael enables utilities and partners to navigate complex energy data and grid management tools with clarity and ease. He is passionate about sustainability and brings that same forward-thinking mindset to his work in the energy space. 

Noe Mateos, Engineering Supervisor | RI Delivery Services (formerly RHA)

Noe brings strong expertise in project planning and energy program management, with a consistent record of delivering results on time and meeting performance goals. He leads day-to-day operations of the CoMFI (Comprehensive Multifamily Incentive) program, overseeing pipeline management, workload coordination, and contractor engagement to ensure projects stay on track. 

His work includes developing detailed performance reports, tracking therm savings, incentive allocation, Total System Benefit (TSB), and participation metrics. He also provides technical oversight and mentorship to engineering teams, helping ensure projects are delivered with quality, accountability, and measurable impact for utilities and partners. 

Brandon Blizman, Engineer | RI Advisory Services (formerly RHA)

Brandon Blizman has more than 22 years of engineering experience specializing in energy efficiency, emerging technologies, building performance, and residential program design. As a Project Engineer, he provides technical leadership for large-scale residential energy efficiency and weatherization programs, including the development and execution of pilot initiatives targeting disadvantaged and hard-to-reach populations. His work spans energy efficiency and electrification efforts, with a focus on quantifying measure savings, conducting cost-effectiveness analysis, developing optimized measure mixes, and supporting building benchmarking activities. 

Brandon contributes engineering expertise to research initiatives for government agencies and investor-owned utilities, including the co-authoring of technical publications and the application of research findings to program design and implementation. He also develops and delivers advanced technical training in combustion appliance safety testing, blower door and duct testing, heat pump water heating technologies, and comprehensive energy auditing practices. As a subject matter expert in energy modeling, he supports field auditing best practices, database development and maintenance while evaluating emerging technologies and evolving building and energy code requirements to improve long-term program performance and regulatory alignment. 

Engineering the Future—Together

Our strength lies in our people. Their technical expertise, creativity, and diverse engineering perspectives enable us to deliver scalable solutions that drive measurable impact.

This Engineers Week, we celebrate the individuals behind the systems. The thinkers, designers, and problem-solvers who turn possibility into progress.

If you’re looking to modernize the grid, scale electrification, or advance energy efficiency and market transformation strategies, we’re ready to collaborate. Contact us to explore how we can transform what’s next — together.