From 2008 to 2013, I worked as a Systems Engineer at Enovity, Inc. in San Francisco, analyzing building energy systems across government facilities, hospitals, and manufacturing plants. That experience fundamentally shaped how I approach large-scale operations today.

The Foundation: Learning to See Systems

At Enovity, I deployed HOBO data loggers, analyzed HVAC systems, and wrote commissioning reports for facilities ranging from the National Archives to semiconductor plants. I completed 200+ site visits and produced 75+ analysis reports.

What I learned wasn’t just technical. I learned to see systems holistically:

• A boiler doesn’t exist in isolation; it’s part of a heating loop, connected to building controls, influenced by occupancy patterns
• Efficiency improvements in one subsystem can create problems elsewhere if you don’t understand interdependencies
• Data without context is just noise

The Certification Push

During this period, I earned two critical certifications:

LEED AP (February 2010): Understanding green building standards taught me that sustainability is as much about process as technology.

PMP (August 2010): Project management methodology gave me a framework for translating technical work into business outcomes.

These weren’t resume decorations. They were toolkits that changed how I approached problems.

Scaling Up: The Mars Transition

When I joined Mars in 2016, I brought the Enovity mindset to a much larger canvas. Instead of individual buildings, I was now looking at a 240-acre, $1B facility complex with 42 buildings.

The principles scaled:

Enovity Lesson	Mars Application
Monitor before optimizing	Data-driven maintenance diagnostics
Quantify impact	Power BI dashboards for efficiency tracking
Cross-system thinking	IFM transformation across functions
Document thoroughly	Process standardization across sites

From Engineer to Leader

At Enovity, I was an individual contributor. My 2011 evaluation noted my technical skills as a “strength” and highlighted my progress toward a bachelor’s degree while working full-time.

At Mars, I evolved into a leader:

• Direct supervision of 10 maintenance team members
• Multi-site program management across North America and Latin America
• $50-60M budget responsibility

The technical foundation from Enovity made that transition possible. You can’t lead what you don’t understand at a fundamental level.

The Through Line

Whether it’s a boiler efficiency calculation or a multi-site vendor compliance heatmap, the approach is the same:

1. Measure what’s actually happening
2. Understand the system dynamics
3. Identify leverage points
4. Implement changes systematically
5. Validate with data

This engineering mindset applies whether you’re commissioning a building or managing a product roadmap. Systems are systems.

Looking Forward

As I consider product management roles, particularly in the public sector where I have both government facility experience and TS/SCI clearance eligibility, I see the same pattern. Products are systems. Users interact with features that connect to services that depend on infrastructure.

The Enovity years taught me to see those connections. Everything since has been applying that vision at increasing scale.