Foresight Trainee, OP Lab

OP Financial Group; Helsinki; Hybrid; EUR 20 000 - 40 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services group in Finland is looking for a Foresight Trainee for a six-month position. You will explore emerging trends and contribute to foresight activities within the OP Lab innovation unit. Ideal candidates are curious and possess strong analytical skills. This role offers a salary of €3,150 per month and supports personal development in a dynamic environment.

Benefits

Staff benefits including banking and insurance services

Comprehensive occupational health care

Lunch and exercise benefits

Qualifications

• Understanding of foresight methods (e.g., PESTE, scenario methods) through studies or other background.
• Ability to handle complex information and distill it into a clear and understandable form.
• Eagerness to apply learned foresight skills in practice.

Responsibilities

• Support foresight work by identifying and interpreting weak signals and trends.
• Collaborate and contribute new ideas to the team.
• Assist in compiling information to support management.

Skills

Curiosity

Analytical skills

Team collaboration

Systematic work style

Communication skills in English

Education

University student in final stages of studies or recent graduate

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

The application period for OP Financial Group's 2026 Kiitorata Trainee Program is now open! We are looking for approximately 40 open-minded and courageous talents for diverse, challenging, and skill-enhancing roles in various business areas.

Are you interested in foresight and want to contribute to developing the future of OP? OP needs top professionals to navigate through the transformation of the financial sector and to build a vision of future opportunities. We invite the most curious individuals to join us on our journey towards the future, and we are currently looking for a Foresight Trainee for a six-month fixed-term position in the OP Lab innovation unit of the OP Group.

A Few Words About The Job

As a Foresight Trainee, your task is to support the foresight future-oriented work carried out at OP Lab. You will participate in identifying, categorizing, and interpreting weak signals and trends. The signals may relate to new technologies, changes in customer behavior, or broader societal phenomena for example. You will be part of a team, bringing systems thinking and new ideas to the team for developing the foresight process. Additionally, you will play a role in strengthening the culture of foresight within OP by sharing what you've learned and introducing new perspectives to discussions. Your tasks may vary according to your skills and interests and can include information gathering and analysis, internal process development, and compiling collected foresight information to support management. After the six-month trainee period, you will have gained practical experience in various foresight methods and have a comprehensive understanding of the foresight work as a whole.

Does this sound like you?

You are curious, interested in the world around you, and eager to develop your future-oriented thinking and foresight skills. You can grasp the big picture, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and recognize connections between different signals and datapoints. You can handle complex information and distill it into a clear, understandable, and well-reasoned form. You can also construct alternative future scenarios and highlight new opportunities.

You enjoy working collaboratively with others, can facilitate discussions, and share your learning in a way that strengthens the foresight culture within the OP Group. You can constructively challenge existing operating models and introduce new methods and approaches that support OP Lab's ability to anticipate and prepare for the future.

Your work style is systematic, and you can manage uncertainty and incompleteness. You communicate fluently in English. In this role, proficiency in Finnish is not required. With Microsoft Office tools, you can easily present, visualize, and report your results in a clear way. You can identify weak signals from various areas, analyze trends, and produce alternative future scenarios that can be utilized in decision-making. We expect you to have experience with futures studies and/or foresight methods (such as PESTE, futures wheel, futures triangle, scenario methods) through your studies or other background. You are a university student in the final stages of your studies or have recently graduated, and your background can be diverse in terms of education, work experience, as well as cultural and international experience. The most important thing is a genuine interest in foresight and a desire to apply what you have learned in practice.

A few words about us and why you should work for us

You will become part of the talented team of OP Lab, where you'll help inspire innovation across OP Financial Group. Here, you'll enjoy a variety of engaging tasks and shape not only your work but also your career within our close-knit group of 30 colleagues. Whether you join us in Vallila, Helsinki or in our new campus in Oulu, we look forward to seeing you in person two to three anchor days a week, and for the rest of the time, you’re free to choose between working remotely or onsite.

At OP Lab, you'll join a team dedicated to exploring new trends, supporting key business decisions, and finding promising opportunities. Our foresight experts keep our leadership ahead of the curve and drive innovation forward. You'll work alongside talented professionals from many backgrounds, gaining hands-on experience on innovation and foresight. If you're eager to learn, grow, and make a real impact, OP Lab is the place to start your journey.

At OP, you will work on challenging tasks of daily life, and in addition to gaining a vast amount of life skills and new expertise, you will be a part of Finland's most attractive financial industry player. With your actions and a determined attitude, you can influence your own career path here. We support your personal development and encourage you boldly! You will be employed by OP for a paid six-month contract from March 1 to August 31, 2026, and we offer the same salary to you and all trainee colleagues; €3,150 per month.

As a counterbalance to responsible work, we take care of your well-being and future-oriented work arrangements. We offer you a stable environment where responsibility, human touch, and mutual success are key values.

You get access to our versatile staff benefits, which include a staff fund as well as staff-based banking, insurance, and loan services. We also offer comprehensive occupational health care, extensive medical expense insurance, and full-time accident insurance. We invest in everyday balance and flexibility as well as offering you lunch, exercise, and cultural benefits and the opportunity for inexpensive vacations in OP vacation shares.

Join our team of future stars!

If you have any questions about the position or working with us, you can get more information from Foresight Lead Aino Toppi p. [phone] (Friday, October 10th, 2-3 PM and Wednesday, October 15th, 12-1 PM).

Next, we would like to hear more about you, so apply by telling us about your skills and motivation in the form of an application and video responses. Apply for the position by Sunday, October 19, 2025, at the latest by 1) submitting your application documents via the Apply Now button and 2) additionally responding to our video interview questions through this link.

We will start processing applications as soon as the application period opens, so explore our diverse trainee positions and send your application to us today!

Here's How Our Application Process Works

• Apply for the positions by October 19, 2025, through OP's career site where you can find job-specific job postings and additional information about the Kiitorata Trainee Program.
• Please submit your application documents via the Apply Now button and additionally respond to our video interview questions through this link. Please note that progressing to the next stage requires both submitting your application documents through our application portal and providing video responses to our questions.
• We will contact all applicants regarding further steps by Tuesday, November 11, 2025. Those selected for personal interviews will be contacted by phone to arrange an interview date, and those not selected will be informed via email.
• We will interview and announce selection decisions to the finalist candidates by December 19, 2025. As part of the selection process, all finalist candidates will undergo personality assessments.
• The employment contract will be for the period from March 1 to August 31, 2026.

We operate in the financial sector and our business is founded on trust and accountability. For this reason, we will check the successful candidate's credit history, corporate connections and potential conflicts of interest. In addition, the successful candidate must take a drug test.

OP Financial Group – We have something in common. Diversity and equality are highly prized at OP Financial Group. We want everyone to feel welcome and valued, and we appreciate that diversity enriches us and brings new perspectives. We invite job applications from everyone, because we all have something in common. We’re thrilled that you want to join us on our shared journey.

Owned by our customers, we are the most attractive financial sector employer in Finland. Our Group employs more than 14,000 professionals. We have a mission – to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of our owner-customers and operating region. What we do matters, both to our employees and society in general. As the largest financial services group in Finland, we are building a better tomorrow; this has been our goal for more than 120 years.