As we grow, bringing in sharp minds who raise the bar in algorithmic thinking is something we are proud of. We’ve been enjoying Aleksi’s company for a month now, and it felt like the right time to introduce him to the world — so we sat down by the imaginary fireplace for a chat.
Welcome Aleksi! It’s great to have you with us. To get started, tell us a little about yourself.
I’m Aleksi, a software developer focused on data science and optimisation. I studied Operations Research at Aalto and have worked both as a consultant and in-house at large companies. Before joining Digisalix, I was a data scientist at S-group, where I mainly worked on the online grocery business.
What made you curious about Digisalix?
I’ve always been drawn to algorithmic and optimisation problems, especially the kind of challenging R&D work Digisalix focuses on. On top of that, the people seemed great and the overall atmosphere felt relaxed and welcoming.
Perfect answer, Aleksi — 5/5 points. Strong start.
Let’s continue.
What has been the most interesting part of your first month?
Jumping into the projects, seeing how problems have been tackled so far, figuring out what still needs attention, and getting to solve those challenges myself. It’s been interesting to be part of a project that brings together a mixed-integer programming solver, PyTorch, and a range of heuristic approaches into one cohesive model.
Also, snowshoeing. I had never tried it before, and it was great to get outdoors in Nuuksio and learn random facts about trees along the way.
Yeah, we try to do something fun like that once a month. Since hybrid teams don’t naturally sit in the same room every day, it’s a good way to actually spend time together outside Slack and meetings. Sometimes even literally outside.
What has surprised you most during your first month?
Getting a glimpse inside new industries and the kinds of challenges they face. It is fascinating how complex and interesting mathematical problems appear in very specialized and practical situations.
What kind of problems are you hoping to get your hands on next?
I would like to work on optimisation problems, but most importantly I want the work to feel meaningful and have a real purpose. Difficult problems where you really have to think hard to find a solution, but ones that are still solvable. It’s also super satisfactory seeing some R&D projects make it into production and being actively used.
Let’s shift gears slightly. What do you do when you’re stuck on a difficult problem?
It depends on the problem, but taking some time to think about it in peace and quiet usually helps, and so does trying to visualize it by sketching the relevant parts. And of course, talking it through with colleagues, including the virtual ones, is also helpful.
And to keep things balanced — What’s something you’ve learned recently that had nothing to do with algorithms?
That there are people at the office who are crazy good at Nopeustesti from Speden Spelit. Did not know that you could get scores that high.
Haha, yeah — I’m surprised as well at how good people get, even with very little practice. For those wondering, this machine does indeed exist in our office 🙂
Thank you for your time. We’re happy to have you on board, Aleksi!
Over the past month, Aleksi has already jumped into demanding optimisation and data science work — the kind where the details matter and the solutions have to hold up in production.
His Master’s thesis already reflected the kind of work we value: tackling a real rostering challenge at VR Group, bringing the model into production, and improving utilisation by 3–5%. Since then, he’s worked both as a consultant and in-house, navigating optimisation problems where the models are rigorous, the constraints are messy, and most of the details live behind NDAs.
If you’re curious how that journey began, the thesis is available here: Aleksi Porokka – Train driver rostering in Finland considering driver satisfaction
We’re glad that the journey now continues at Digisalix.
We work on problems that demand serious mathematical thinking — so we build teams that can deliver it.
If meaningful work, serious thinking, and occasionally stepping away from the screen for some fun real-world activities sound like a reasonable combination, you might feel at home here too.
