Career stories

Eelis Ylitalo – Spatial information manager

Eelis Ylitalo’s career as a spatial information manager has been a multi-stage one. For a long time – ten years – Eelis worked in restaurants as a cook and chef. After ten years, he wanted to do something completely different and make a complete change.

“In 2014, I decided to apply for a degree in surveying engineering at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. I originally came to Infra through a study-related internship in 2016 and worked as a surveyor at the time.”

During the internship, Eelis was tipped off by his supervisor about a vacancy for a specialist planner.

“I was motivated and the employer clearly appreciated that. I did my thesis for our client, the City of Tampere, completed my studies and got a permanent position as a specialist planner.”

After three years as a specialist planner, in 2021 Eelis started as a geographic information manager. The daily routine of a Spatial Information Manager consists of daily collaboration with employees and partners, administrative tasks, monitoring of finances and objectives, steering group and project meetings, data maintenance and process development. As a rule, our work is related to governmental processes, infrastructure asset management and geospatial data maintenance and coordination.

“In addition to maintenance, we create and develop governance models that define, for example, what information needs to be produced in which process. In practice, this can mean, for example, the maintenance of a playground or the construction of a street. These governance models aim to ensure that existing information is correct, timely and accessible.”

“Spatial information technologies are evolving at a tremendous pace and we need to keep up. The manual handling of disparate data is decreasing and the production of information is becoming more diverse.”

“What I like about my current job is the variety of content, the energy it brings to my work and the fact that I can plan my own day. My tasks are suitably challenging, but my job is not just about administration and steering groups. Infra has good working hours, excellent career prospects and good staff benefits. The work community is well-functioning and the working atmosphere is good, but these factors play a major role in my work motivation and well-being at work.”