I most recently worked as a Staff Applied Scientist at Wolt/Doordash, until the end of May 2026.

I very much like anything related to optimization. Combinatorial optimization and logistics have a special place in my heart. Especially making optimization algorithms work with the messy real world is interesting. I also like the especially challenging statistics problems that come up with optimization problems.

You can find my CV as a human-friendly PDF file or as a machine/human readable Markdown file.

Programming Projects

Check out some of my programming projects in Github.

Publications

Continuous Control Monte Carlo Tree Search Informed by Multiple Experts, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) 2018 source code

Regularizing Sampled Differential Dynamic Programming, American Control Conference 2018

An Iterative Closest Points Approach to Neural Generative Models, arXiv preprint source code

Discovering and Synthesizing Humanoid Climbing Movements, SIGGRAPH 2017

Augmenting Sampling Based Controllers with Machine Learning, ACM Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2017 source code

Sampled Differential Dynamic Programming, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2016

RT-RRT*: A Real-Time Path Planning Algorithm Based on RRT*, ACM Motion in Games (MIG) 2015

Online Control of Simulated Humanoids Using Particle Belief Propagation, SIGGRAPH 2015

A 60-GHz Semipassive MMID Transponder for Backscattering Communications, International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2013

Random Search Algorithms for Optimal Control, Doctoral dissertation

Integrated Passive Radio Frequency Filter and Multiplexer Designs, Master's Thesis

Kognitiivisen radion etuasteen mahdolliset suodatinteknologiat, Bachelor's Thesis

Work Experience

Staff Applied Scientist, Wolt / Doordash, April 2025 - May 2026

The work was focused on the routing and scheduling of deliveries and the related estimation, with the matters of pricing also needing to be considered in the optimization. The role included coordinating bigger cross-team and cross-company projects, scoping new features and discussing the resources for their implementation, and taking part in defining the objectives and key results. Mentoring others and sharing knowledge and best practices was a part of the job too.

Interim Engineering Team Lead, Wolt / Doordash, November 2024 - mid March 2025

I was responsible for running the Logistics Assignments team. The team is responsible for developing and maintaining the assignment engine at Wolt. The assignment engine plans the routes and matches the tasks to the courier partners. This is a critical part of the company's software and it needs to run day and night and operate under heavy loads at all times.

Logistics Optimization Researcher, Senior Data Scientist, Senior Applied Scientist, Wolt / Doordash, September 2020 - October 2024

My work revolved around developing the routing algorithm of the company and also making the logistics processes more efficient in general. Some specific tasks that I worked on include:

  • Developing the in-house route optimizer (C++ programming)
  • Operations research
  • Exploratory data science
  • Developing and deploying machine learning models
  • Simulations
  • Doing any and all sorts of tasks related to the logistics domain both engineering and data science

I restructured the traffic model into a proper data science project and broke its tight coupling with the production systems. This decoupling was what made it possible to iterate on the models in the first place. The initial roll-out of the improved models was a major factor in the company hitting its company-level key KPI that year.

I also played a key role in building the infrastructure to execute switchback experiments and in designing the capabilities to analyze their results, in addition to running the switchback tests themselves.

I migrated the route optimizer's key CI/CD pipeline from Jenkins to GitHub Actions. This was a high-stakes undertaking: the optimizer is at the core of the company's logistics, and had the migration gone wrong, the whole company could have faced significant and costly downtime. I planned and executed the cutover so that the new pipeline took over without any disruption to production.

Data Scientist, Vincit, August 2018 - September 2020

I did data science projects in various domains for multiple customers. The projects ranged from time series prediction to natural language processing and optimization of industrial processes.

PhD Student, Aalto University, October 2014 - September 2018

I was a PhD student at Aalto University in the Department of Computer Science. I did research in random search (Monte Carlo) methods for optimal control.

Research Scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

I worked in the Antennas and radio frequency technology team at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The work involved radio frequency hardware projects for various customers. The technologies that I worked with ranged from antennas and simple passive devices to radio frequency micro electro-mechanical components. I worked first as a trainee (intermittently, May 2012 - June 2014) and later as a Research Scientist (July 2014 - October 2014).

Course Assistant, Aalto University

  • Spring 2012
  • Fall 2011
  • Spring 2010
  • Fall 2009

I was an assistant at the course "Applied Probability and Statistics" in Aalto University. The course included the fundamentals of probability and statistics.

Early Work Experience

  • Project engineer trainee, SRV, Summers 2009 and 2010
  • Construction worker, Hartela, Summers 2006 and 2008
  • Hamburger assembler, McDonald's, Summer 2007
  • Janitor, DB Schenker, Summer 2004

Education

Doctor of Science, Aalto University, 2018

I earned my doctorate from Aalto University in 2018. My research concerned random search methods for optimal control. The research also involved machine learning methods.

Master of Science with distinction, Aalto University, 2014

I earned my Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Aalto University in 2014. I majored in signal processing and did a minor in computational science, i.e. my studies consisted mostly of programming mathematics heavy algorithms. The elective studies contained also radio engineering, and my master's thesis was about designing integrated radio frequency electronics.

Bachelor of Science with honours, Aalto University, 2013

I earned my Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Aalto University in 2013. My major was electronics and I minored in mathematics. My bachelor's thesis was in the field of radio frequency electronics and it handled the possibilities of implementing tunable filter technologies.

Military Service

Military service is obligatory to all male citizens of Finland. I completed my military service in July 2010 - July 2011 earning the rank of Second Lieutenant. I completed the reserve officer training in the Reconnaissance Company. I have attended to mandatory military drills and in June 2019 I was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

Academic Activities