5 Minutes With Owen

We have 5 Minutes With Owen Lamont, our Principal Software Engineer who spends his days monitoring backend services, reviewing code and occasionally debating if beer metaphors can be used to explain grid concepts!

🔹 What’s your role at OptiGrid and what does a typical day look like for you?

I’m the principal software engineer at OptiGrid. A typical day involves keeping an eye on our backend services to see whether any updates need approval or whether any errors need attention. I also review features that need feedback or sign off from other staff. Beyond that, I spend time on development tasks, refining our backlog of updates, and discussing future tasks or workflow improvements.

🔹 You joined OptiGrid from a completely different industry. What made you take the leap into energy?

I worked at a couple of energy utilities building prototype energy management systems and doing analytics for existing infrastructure early in my career. So even though I changed jobs  to work in a different industry, joining OptiGrid brought me back to my roots. Working at OptiGrid has been a big shift compared to the large utilities I’ve been with before because the way we work is quite different. I still joke that I don’t fully understand active and reactive power (something to do with beer froth?), but contributing to the renewable transition feels meaningful.

🔹 What’s something you’ve built or shipped at OptiGrid that you’re particularly proud of?

I’m proud of the early OptiBidder and OptiForecaster service work that I have contributed towards the development and I’m honoured to have  established the foundations for how we build and monitor our services. Drawing on experience from previous roles, I helped choose tools and practices that set us up to grow effectively and it’s been rewarding to see other developers build on these foundations and continue expanding our capabilities beyond what we’ve implemented earlier.

🔹 You contribute to open source projects in your spare time. What drives that?

Part of the motivation is similar to posting on social media – it’s satisfying to see other developers like or share the updates on a project you’ve built. More importantly, coding is both my job and my hobby. Many of the libraries and packages that OptiGrid uses were created by open source developers who contributed their time simply because they care about solving problems in their domains. Contributing some of my own time feels like a small way of giving back.

🔹 What’s your favourite productivity hack when coding?

One principle that works for me is staying curious and exploratory. The best way to solve a problem last month might not be the best way today, so regularly looking for new tools, libraries, and ideas has been valuable. I spend a lot of time browsing the GitHub Explore feed, following developers and starring interesting repositories. GitHub has a much higher signal to noise ratio for interesting technical ideas than most social media platforms.