Software Development Coach & Mentor
From writing code to making the calls — and everything in between.
10 years ago I couldn't write a line of code. Now I build data-intensive systems, lead engineering teams, and mentor the next ones. We build real things in every session — then I get out of your way.
How I can help
I start by mapping where you are and where you want to go. The plan comes from that — not from a template.
Coaching & Mentoring
System Design & Architecture
We work through the decisions that are hard to learn alone — how to structure a deploy pipeline, when to add a queue, how Docker networks talk to each other. The stuff your senior colleagues handle that you never get to touch.
Career Strategy
Landing your next contract. Positioning for a lead role. Building a GitHub portfolio that shows you can ship, not just code. We figure out what actually moves the needle and focus there.
Build Things, Ship Things
Last session with a mentee we wired up Flask, Redis, and Postgres in Docker Compose from scratch. His homework was to add schema validation and a dead letter queue. Every session ends with something that runs.
Consulting & Contracting
Fullstack, ML & Clojure
I build production systems in Python, TypeScript, and Clojure. Same architectural thinking I bring to coaching, applied to your codebase.
Fractional CTO / Tech Lead
Technology roadmaps, team building, and the architectural decisions that are expensive to get wrong. Part-time commitment, full context.
What they say
Toni's coaching sessions were incredibly valuable. I worked with Toni as my mentor and consultant around a challenging Clojure project. My goal was to implement a Clojure application with customized communication logic to several external systems at the same time, aggregating their data and presenting it in a uniform manner to application users. During this implementation Toni's tutelage and guidance was invaluable. Not only in terms of the experience and understanding of the language itself but also in terms of understanding and working with people.
Tommi Martin
Senior Software Developer
Toni mentored me when I was at the beginning of my software development career. In my first job position I ended up working with a new language (Clojure) in a rather complex project. Despite how daunting the task at hand was, with his guidance and mentoring I was able to move forward despite my limited knowledge and experience in software development. Having him in my corner as a mentor helped me develop my skills in what felt like years in a matter of a few months. With his passion, expertise, and patient ability to teach and guide, I can't recommend him enough to anyone looking to up their game and grow as a developer.
Catalina Riveros
Clinical Psychologist & Coder
I have worked with Toni in several projects during our time together at Metosin, and he has mentored me for the last 3 years. Toni saw potential in me before I could see it myself, and instead of telling me what to do, he asked me the kind of questions that allowed me to arrive at the answers on my own. That approach has sharpened my strategic thinking and given me clarity on where I want to take my career. His mentorship has shaped how I think about my career, my work and myself. Toni has been genuinely invested in my growth and I wouldn't be where I am today without his mentorship.
Arttu Kukkonen
UX Designer & Consultant
Toni has made an impact across several of our teams, technically, operationally, and culturally. As a tech lead, he drove operational improvements within our data engineering team, laid the foundation for a critical ML product overhaul needed to drive ad impressions in the billions, led changes in our software architecture for a programmatic optimization engine, and most recently is leading a platform team automating complex integrations with a wide array of partners. His technical skills are top notch. He can work across product and engineering comfortably. He builds and leads teams to great impact. And he's a pleasure to work with.
Jamie Mills
Product, Tech & Data Leader
Let's figure out your next step
The first call is free. We'll figure out where you are, what's in the way, and whether I'm the right person to help.
How I work
I don't follow a curriculum. When a mentee landed a new contract mid-program, we dropped the original plan and spent the next session on Docker and the deployment skills his new role needed. The coaching serves your career, not the other way around.
Architecture over syntax
I focus our sessions on the things that are hard to learn alone — system design, data flow, deployment topology, how services talk to each other. You can learn a framework's API from the docs. Understanding why a system is structured a certain way is what takes a mentor.
Every session ships something
We don't talk in abstractions. We spin up containers, connect databases, wire up queues, validate schemas. I assign homework that extends what we built — not reading assignments.
Simplicity first
I push mentees to build components from scratch — auth middleware, routers, schema validation — before reaching for libraries. You add complexity when the pain of not having it is real, not before. I learned this from my own mentor at Metosin and it stuck.
"The goal is for you to not need me anymore."
About me
I played in a reggae band for six years and worked as an audio engineer before I got into software. The fascination with digital signal processing is what pulled me into a CSE degree in intelligent systems. I was already working full-time while studying — first at the OUSPG secure programming group at the University of Oulu, then at Codemate as a fullstack consultant. Somewhere in there I discovered Clojure, got obsessed, emailed Metosin asking if they'd take me on, and three months later I was consulting for them.
Since then I've founded Metosin's Oulu office, grown a team from zero to three, and stepped up as interim Product Owner at WPP when they needed continuity. For the past 2.5 years I've been integrating AI/ML models into WPP's media optimisation platform and building high-concurrency data pipelines in Clojure. I also do the things most ICs don't get to touch — sales, recruiting, and architectural decisions for multi-year contracts.
I bring all of that into coaching. Not just the code, but the career strategy, the communication, and the architectural thinking that gets you from "I can build features" to "I can lead projects."