Data Engineer Lari Niittylä enjoys his work as a builder of the OP Data Platform – versatile career opportunities and a humane ethos are what he loves most about his role at OP
Lauri Niittylä works as a data engineer at OP Financial Group. An extroverted professional enjoys the encouraging ethos of his work community and acts as an agile methods coach in his team. Niittylä thinks he will stay at OP for a long time as a large organisation offers lots of career opportunities. As a data whiz, he sees OP as an adaptive and multi-faceted technology house where competence development is highly valued.
Lari Niittylä started working as a data engineer at OP in 2019 after graduating as an information and communication technology engineer from Metropolia. Five and a half years at OP have gone by in a flash.
– I have been very happy working here. Right from the start, I became involved in interesting projects and was given responsibility. It facilitated the onboarding and taught me professionally. When I came in, we were building infrastructure on top of the Amazon Web Service, creating solutions for data integration and facilitating the work of Data Scientists.
Due to an organisational change, the role of Niittylä's team changed and the tasks were updated.
– We are now building a new platform for OP called OP Data Platform. The project requires significant investment from various stakeholders, and it's great to see it unfold. Our goal is to build a data catalogue and integrate data routes into a single pipeline. The integration is managed by other teams for which we will create the necessary infra and tools. We are developing the platform and building tools in close cooperation.
Technology house of diverse opportunities
Niittylä's work runs primarily on the Databricks Platform, but other working methods are continuously being adopted. A massive cloud migration from AWS to Azure is underway.
– OP is a diverse tech house, and we use a multitude of different technologies from Databricks to AI applications and from the M365 family to interface functionalities. There's activity in the UI, mobile development and data platform fronts across the organisation. OP has many different systems.
The most common coding languages used by Niittylä's team are Python, SQL, Typescript, YAML and Spark. One of the core tasks of the competence centre is to facilitate the work of business analysts and data scientists by managing the infra, in other words, making data more understandable and usable.
Humane ethos attracts
Niittylä has felt right at home at OP. An important factor is a warm and friendly work community.
– There are nice people here across the organisation. My team is packed with good people: experienced seniors, rising starts and a few highly skilled trainees who joined through the Kiitorata programme. It's also nice not always being the youngest anymore, says Lari grinning.
The job role will be modified according to one’s strengths and interests
In addition to his technical data role, Niittylä acts as the so-called Chapter Lead in events where information is shared and unified practices developed among people with similar expertise. Niittylä also serves as the Agile Master in his team, which means he uses part of his working time to advance agile methods, by facilitating meetings and planning ceremonies, for example. Being brisk and resourceful, Niittylä finds leadership roles a pleasant and natural part of his work.
– At OP, you can have a strong influence on your work pallette, which is rewarding. It's possible to enlarge your role by other means than climbing the traditional career ladder, which allows different personalities to shine through. Some people prefer a more introverted way of working, while others love to be on the podium.
A large organization offers wide opportunities: you don't need to change the company to find new responsibilities; instead, you can build a career inhouse.
– OP has a fantastic framework for competence development. Personally, I have leveraged it to complete various certificates and courses that support my work, explains Lari.
The next biggest data house in Finland
In a Data Engineer's job, Niittylä considers team working skills and the desire to develop one's expertise important. In addition, interest towards data and systems is key.
– Though we don't do actual application development, enthusiasm toward technical principles carries a lot of weight. We are Finland's biggest data house after the Finnish government when measured in the amount of data, so interest toward data and cloud technologies is essential.
Lari sees OP as an excellent employer with regard to work-related benefits, the organisation and the environment.
– There's a strong emphasis on the wellbeing of individuals and understanding about work-life balance at OP. Though we have ambitious common goals, we don't strive for them in an unsustainable way. I personally enjoy having time and energy for hobbies, such as ice hockey.