Aug 2023 – Jan 2024 · 5 mos · Remote

• Led 4-person development team enhancing Yara's React library. Managed cross-functional collaboration with design and product teams, established feedback loops, and provided daily engineering support to product teams.
• Key achievements: Delivered 10 new components, upgraded to Storybook@7 with custom UI based on user research, integrated a11y testing, restructured token architecture for 50+ components, and implemented Chromatic previews for streamlined design reviews. Strengthened design-developer collaboration through organized demos and feedback sessions.

May 2022 – Mar 2023 · 10 mos · Remote

• Led 3-person development team through 11-month engagement creating a comprehensive design system from foundation. Managed collaboration with AppOmni's design and UI development teams, establishing workflows for system maintenance and future extensibility.
• Key achievements: Implemented design tokens system aligned with component architecture, built versionized component library as Web Components (Lit framework) distributed via npm/GitHub, established CI/CD pipeline with automated testing (Jest) and visual regression, created comprehensive documentation (Storybook/Confluence), and conducted team trainings for knowledge transfer. Successfully integrated design system across AppOmni's product codebase.

Jul 2021 – Sep 2023 · 2 yrs 2 mos · Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany · Remote

• Led design system product spanning 22 countries, managing strategic direction, operations, and cross-organizational adoption. Established OKR framework tracking adoption metrics across product teams, libraries, and component usage to drive data-driven roadmap prioritization.
• Key achievements: Built and managed design system community through regular onboarding sessions, company-wide presentations, and stakeholder engagement at business level. Guided team engineering new Web Components library for framework-agnostic integration. Defined team workflows and contribution processes, conducted security audit workshops, and applied service design techniques (user research, ideation, facilitation) to drive system evolution. Increased voluntary adoption through internal marketing and meeting product team expectations.

Jan 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 5 mos · Europe

• I am a Design Systems Architect working as independent consultant at long- and short-term projects. I am happy to help with crafting, standardizing and championing your design system.
• My expertise is running the processes related to the design and development in large or regular organizations. It means inventing and shaping the processes through user interviews and data analysis, tuning the management tools and running new ones, working on company culture and increasing people’s involvement, providing the technical infrastructure and guiding in design and development.
• The roles may be named as
• Design Systems Architect
• Design Systems Expert
• Engineering Manager for Design Systems
• Frontend Development Team Leader
• Available for full-time projects, short-time consultancy, workshops, training and couching. More info at https://bridge-the-gap.dev/ and https://varya.me/

Sep 2019 – Jul 2021 · 1 yr 10 mos · Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland

• In tight collaboration with internal and external colleagues, we have been developing and maintaining Elisa design system, which includes Visual language, CSS library, several React libraries, and associated processes. My role was to align the strategy of the project together with Elisa Design Lead, organize inner researches and develop detailed project plans. Altogether, the achievements of the project were:
• ○ A clear strategy and developed year, quoter and monthly plans for the design system projects
• ○ Constant work with in-house design and development community
• ○ Implementing in-house open source model for maintaining the design system projects
• ○ Organizing effective but simple project management practices and routines
• ○ Developing design system inner website
• ○ Introducing and adopting management, communication, and development tools
• ○ Developing CSS and React libraries

Jun 2019 – Dec 2019 · 6 mos · Helsinki Area, Finland

• I was a part of Wonna community which knows how to build great software. Personally working as a design system expert for small-to-large clients, helping with managing existing design systems and setting up new ones.

Jan 2018 – Mar 2019 · 1 yr 2 mos · Helsinki Area, Finland

• As SC5 joined Nordcloud, I continued my work on building design systems under the new brand. My responsibilities were the following:
• 1. Leading Design System project for Elisa
• In tight collaboration with Elisa people, we have been developing and maintaining Elisa design system, which includes Visual language, CSS library, several React libraries and associated processes. My role was to align the strategy of the project together with Elisa Design Lead, organize inner researches and develop detailed project plans. Altogether, the achievements of the project were:
• Clear strategy and developed year, quoter and monthly plans for the design system projects.
• Constant work with in-house design and development community
• Implementing in-house open source model for maintaining the design system projects
• Organizing effective but simple project management practices and routines
• Developing design system inner website
• Introducing and adopting management, communication, and development tools
• Leading developing of CSS and React libraries
• 2. Public and private workshops and conference talks on Design Systems topic
• I have been shaping and giving both private and public workshops on Design Systems. Depending on the audience, they were either design-, or process-, or development- focused. This includes 2-day private workshops shaped to the needs of a specific client company.
• 3. Leading the team of designers and developers working on projects for Elisa
• Taking care of 18 designers and developers working on various projects for the same client. The work included communication between the client and the company, processing feedback, organizing rotations, introduction to the new projects, and team building events.

Oct 2016 – Dec 2017 · 1 yr 2 mos · Helsinki Area, Finland

• Projects:
• Order system for Comptel
• In Comptel, I participated as a frontend developer in a large team producing heavy application with React/Redux and other technologies from the stack.
• B2B website for DNA
• Wrapping up a business-to-business project at DNA which includes technologies like ES6, Webpack, Angular, SASS.
• Leading the account team of 2 developers and 2 designers.
• Refactoring for SWAP.COM
• Swap.com faced challenges when scaling its architecture into a larger project. The solution required refactoring into React+Redux application, including adjusted building process and server-side rendering.
• The most focus of the project is to provide infrastructure for continuous code improvements by Swap.com developers, adjusting their process and showcasing the usage of React and Redux.
• Techs: React.js, Redux, JavaScript, CSS, CSS Modules
• Developing and maintaining SC5 Styleguide open source tool
• Developing SC5 StyleGuide, an open source generator for informative and easily navigable live style guides which can be edited directly in the browser.
• Landing page: http://styleguide.sc5.io/
• Repository: https://github.com/SC5/sc5-styleguide

Oct 2014 – May 2016 · 1 yr 7 mos · Helsinki

• 1. Lead Developer in the Pattern Library project of Elisa Oyj. This contains responsibilities such as:
• Creating the library of UI components for Elisa (mobile operator) as well as brining the culture of using it and building the processes of collaborative work across the company
• Creating SPA for YLE internal needs (React.js+Angular.js, PostCSS, webpack)
• Maintaining the UI library and implementing the best development practices for Veikkaus (national lottery organizer)
• Organizing internal training and knowledge sharing
• 2. Developing SC5 Styleguide, an open source generator for informative and easily navigable live style guides which can be edited directly in the browser.
• http://styleguide.sc5.io/
• https://github.com/SC5/sc5-styleguide
• This work includes:
• developing an npm package (NodeJS)
• developing an AngularJS application
• developing web interfaces with SASS
• keeping open-source development process
• contributing into open-source vendor libraries
• giving conference talks about the project
• organizing the project open source community
• 3. Pattern library at Veikkaus
• At Veikkaus, I participated in maintaining the UI library and implementing the best development practices. My job included developing special tools to provide smooth styleguide-first process. We used SC5 Style Guide Generator as a documentation helper to generate living style guide. At the same time, I organized template re-usage in the style guide and automatic visual regression tests.
• The work included:
• creating the library of UI components for different projects of Elisa
• making the tooling for developing the library and collaborating
• organizing the process of learning how to use the library and collaborate
• providing help with integrating the library into the products
• internal evangelism

Sep 2013 – Apr 2014 · 7 mos · Amsterdam Area, Netherlands

• Was a part of Design division leading the frontend team. The team is responsible for frontend at the biggest media services in the Netherlands such as
• http://www.telegraaf.nl/
• http://www.dichtbij.nl/
• We use Agile/Scrum to organize our processes as well as modern libraries and techniques
• REST
• SASS, LESS
• Backbone,js, Underscore.js

Oct 2011 – Aug 2013 · 1 yr 10 mos

• At Yandex I worked within a team of 5 front-end developers. This work includes developing:
• UI framework of 150+ standalone visual components for Yandex-style web sites
• Allows to build Yandex-style site. The framework is used by 150+ developers at 100+ Yandex services.
• My team was a part of a bigger team team of 15 developers. We were producing the framework and supplied tools together. My role is to plan, control and help in work of my team (frontend developers), help and control the result.
• Besides coding in JavaScript, XSL, HTML/CSS my work included on-site trainings and presentations for Yandex employees, developer relations, specifying product roadmap, prioritizing goals, continuous integration.
• I also develop:
• UI framework github.com/bem/bem-bl (Open Source)
• HTML/CSS, JavaScript
• Publish documentation and blog posts about that (in Russian)
• Support and develop UI tools
• GNUmakefile, JavaScript (server-side, NodeJS)
• Public articles:
• What is BEM?
• http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/16/a-new-front-end-methodology-bem/
• Tutorial on JavaScript components with i-bem.js
• http://bem.info/tutorials/bem-js-tutorial/
• Public presentations:
• The thinking behind BEM
• http://vimeo.com/66474705
• The talk at Front-Trends 2013
• Maintainable Frontend Development with BEM
• https://hasgeek.tv/metarefresh/2013/496-maintainable-frontend-development-with-bem
• This is a talk given at Metarefresh on 23 February 2013 in Bangalore (India)
• BEM. What you can borrow from Yandex frontend dev
• https://vimeo.com/53219242
• Frontend evolution at Yandex
• Speaking at Fronteers 2012 Jam Session
• https://vimeo.com/51897014

Jun 2008 – Sep 2011 · 3 yrs 3 mos

• Currently I develop:
• UI framework github.com/bem/bem-bl (Open Source)
• HTML/CSS, JavaScript
• Publish documentation and blog posts about that (in Russian)
• UI framework for Yandex sites
• Allows to build Yandex-style site. This is work in a team of 15 developers and with communication with more developers from other departments.
• XSL, HTML/CSS, JavaScript
• Support and develop UI tools
• GNUmakefile, JavaScript (server-side, NodeJS)
• At our team I help all the developers to communicate and control whole proccess of development as an expert.
• Public presentations:
• JavaScript in terms of BEM
• http://clubs.ya.ru/bem/replies.xml?item_no=1154
• How to use bem-bl block library
• http://clubs.ya.ru/bem/replies.xml?item_no=1152
• Previously I worked at fotki.yandex.ru (XSLT, JavaScript) and ask.yandex.ru (HTML/CSS, XSLT, JavaScript) as a front-end web-developer.

Sep 2007 – May 2008 · 8 mos

• I was a team leader in a web-department of the company. I managed whole the process of making websites. I also made UI prototypes and wrote JavaScript for those web sites.