Eetu Niemi, PhD

Enterprise Architect & Consultant | Author | Helping organizations navigate complexity through structure—and helping senior experts build visibility & influence inside organizations

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

About

I work at the intersection of complex organizations and complex expert work. As a Senior Enterprise Architect with 16+ years of consulting experience, I’ve supported more than 45 private and public organizations in making their business and IT landscapes understandable, intentional, and strategically aligned. My focus is on creating clarity in places where large-scale change, dependencies, and ambiguity meet. Alongside this work, I write about something closely related but rarely discussed: How senior expert careers actually function inside organizations. Not the entrepreneur narrative. Not the management ladder. But the realities of visibility, influence, structures, and long-term sustainability for people whose value comes from expertise rather than authority. This led to my book, The Senior Expert Career Playbook, a practical guide for building a strong, influential expert career without becoming a manager or entrepreneur—and without burning out in the process. Across both domains—enterprise architecture and expert career development—my work is driven by the same goal: To make complex systems understandable and actionable through structure. 💼 Enterprise Architecture I consult on all aspects of EA, including: - Business, information, application, and technology architectures - Solution architecture and systems analysis - EA governance, operating models, and maturity development - Modeling practices and tool implementations - Strategic planning and transformation support - Identity and Access Management (IAM), RBAC/ABAC design, SSO - Helping organizations turn architecture into real decision-making power My industry experience spans banking & insurance, transport & logistics, telecom, public sector, manufacturing, retail, and more. ✍️ Writing & Thought Work I’ve authored five non-fiction books, including: - The first Finnish-language EA book- Two bestselling IT consulting guides - The new Senior Expert Career Playbook - Several newsletters read by experts, architects, and consultants My writing focuses on turning complex ideas into clear, practical models without oversimplifying the substance.I also write fiction and children's books. 🎓 Background - PhD (Information Management and Logistics, dissertation on EA benefit realization), Tampere University of Technology - MSc (econ.) (iInformation Systems), University of Jyväskylä - 15+ peer-reviewed academic publications

Experience

  • CGI Partner | Senior Business Consultant at CGI
    Oct 2022 - Present · 3 yrs 10 mos

    Support for digitalization and development programs, as well as EA function maturity improvement, working as an enterprise architect under the CIO at a transportation and logistics organization. Also worked as a business analyst in an international project for a public administration client, to plan and pilot a solution for sharing open data across Europe. In addition, planned IAM target state architecture for a public sector client.

  • Senior Consultant and Partner at Coala Oy
    Mar 2013 - Oct 2022 · 9 yrs 8 mos

    EA and IAM consulting at Public Sector, Finance, Telecommunications and Services clients. Responsible for e.g. EA method and tool development and implementation, EA planning and modeling, solution architecture planning, functional systems analysis and design, and IAM architecture and access rights model design.

  • Consultant at Accenture
    May 2008 - Feb 2013 · 4 yrs 10 mos

    Enterprise Architecture and Identity and Access Management consulting in multiple projects in numerous public sector and private organizations. Responsible for e.g. defining detailed capability, system and technology architecture as-is and to-be state blueprints, and defining architecture governance models and planning roadmaps for reaching the target state. Also conducted application portfolio optimization, functional system analysis and design, technical architecture planning and functional testing.

  • Information Technology Research Institute, University of Jyväskylä (2 yrs 2 mos)
    • Project manager
      Jan 2008 - Mar 2008 · 3 mos

      Research and project management in an industry collaboration project AISA on Enterprise and Software Architecture quality management, funded by the the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and the six participating companies. Research was carried out on e.g. architecture governance, evaluation criteria, metrics and methods, organizational benefits and stakeholders of architecture, and the current status of architecture work in companies. Also included carrying out PhD studies.

    • Researcher
      Jun 2006 - Dec 2007 · 1 yr 7 mos

      See above.

    • Project Analyst
      Feb 2006 - May 2006 · 4 mos

      See above.

  • Sales Representative at Call Solutions
    May 2005 - Aug 2005 · 4 mos

    Sales of Mobile Phone and Broadband services via phone. Part-time employment (16–22.5 hours/week).