Eetu Heiskanen: Here you get to choose what you want to do 

Eetu Heiskanen joined Etteplan as a mechanical engineer in January 2026. Just a few months later, an opportunity to become a team leader in the Etteplan Defence Competence Centre came his way. He took it, and today he leads a growing team working on vehicle engineering for Patria. 

His journey reflects something he values about working at Etteplan: the opportunity to explore new responsibilities, follow your interests, and find your own direction with the support of others. 

Eetu decided to test his limits and stepped into the team leader role after the previous leader left. 

“I was interested in the team leader position when the previous leader left. I didn’t have much experience with it, but my supervisor noticed my interest and asked if I wanted to take the role. From there, things started to take shape, and I got support from a more experienced manager,” Eetu says. 

Today, his responsibilities extend well beyond engineering work. He helps onboard new team members, coordinates incoming work requests, and takes care of customer reporting and day-to-day communication. 

What has made staying at Etteplan feel like an easy choice, he says, is that career development here has never felt like something handed down from above. 

“Here you get to choose what you want to do and where you want to head in the longer term.” 

He points to the same thing when asked what makes Patria collaboration specifically interesting to work on as an engineer. Growth is fast, the work is varied, and people are trusted to move toward what interests them. 

For Eetu, the clearest sense of purpose comes from something simple: being able to help the people around him and seeing that it actually makes a difference. 

"Being able to help others, and seeing clearly that it matters, that's probably the most visible thing right now," he says. He adds that the team itself has become meaningful to him, beyond the tasks. "Getting to build something good together with this team is really nice." 

Flexible working hours and the option to work remotely help Eetu balance his work with life outside the office. He and a few colleagues have also floated the idea of organizing shared sports sessions to recharge after work. 

There’s no shortage of projects waiting for him at home, either. Eetu is building his own house and spends his free time fishing and hunting. 

Eetu finds AI helpful especially when he needs to find information quickly. 

"It's basically replaced a lot of googling for me," he explains. "You get a quick answer and the source too. It also helps with formulas and calculations, but you still need your own judgment. It doesn’t always get things right.” 

Looking ahead, he expects AI to speed up scheduling, reporting, and automatic checks on drawings. 

Asked what he'd tell someone considering joining Etteplan, Eetu speaks from his own vantage point in the defence industry. 

"The work itself is interesting, and the outlook is stable and growth oriented, especially in defence right now," he says. "Add a good working environment on top of that, and there isn't much more you need to enjoy coming to work."