Career story: Johanna Rytkönen

From project management to marketing and communications leadership – Johanna has grown with Simucube through curiosity, responsibility, and long-term vision

Johanna Rytkönen’s career at Simucube is a story of curiosity, versatility, and growth. Over the years, she has worked across different functions, helped shape the company during a period of rapid development, and built a role for herself at the intersection of leadership, marketing, and commercial development.

Today, as Director of Marketing and Communications, she is driven above all by the chance to create real impact.

“I’ve felt that I’ve been one of the people helping to build this company into what it is today. That brings a strong sense of meaning.”

A broad background and a strong drive to keep learning

Johanna has always been driven by curiosity and a desire to learn. Her educational background reflects that mindset: she has studied international business and communication, while also building expertise in leadership, language, and culture. Throughout her career, she has continued to develop her skills and pursue new areas of study, not only to gain qualifications, but because learning itself has always been one of her strongest sources of motivation.

In her early career, Johanna worked in small companies where she took on a wide range of responsibilities. Her work included everything from recruitment and invoicing to packaging and managing daily operations. That experience gave her a practical understanding of how businesses work and shaped the versatile, hands-on mindset that has supported her ever since.

At the same time, her path into marketing and communications was not accidental. Long before stepping into a leadership role in the field, Johanna had already built relevant experience in marketing. Over a decade earlier, a former manager encouraged her to move in that direction, and from that point on, she began actively seeking opportunities that would allow her to grow in the field and strengthen her expertise even further.

At Simucube, that same versatility has also made it possible for her to grow, take on different kinds of responsibilities, and build new career paths within the company.

Finding Simucube by chance and growing with the company

Johanna describes ending up at Simucube as a coincidence. What began as an unexpected opportunity has grown into a career chapter that has now lasted five years.

When she joined the company in 2021, Simucube was still much smaller than it is today. One of the things that made a strong impression on her during the recruitment process was a conversation with the company’s co-founder about Simucube’s values. That discussion stood out to her and gave her an early sense that this was a place where caring about the world genuinely matters.

Since then, she has seen the company grow rapidly, become more international, and build more structure and shared direction. At the same time, she feels that something essential has remained unchanged.

“We’ve grown a lot and our team has become much more international, but the heart of the company is still the same,” Johanna says.

For Johanna, that combination of change and continuity has been especially meaningful. She has not only witnessed Simucube’s transformation but also played an active role in shaping it.

From project management to Director of Marketing and Communications

Johanna began her Simucube career in project management within product development, at a time when the role itself was still relatively new in the company. In practice, that meant taking broad responsibility and helping coordinate major development-related work in a growing organization. Soon after joining, she also became a member of Simucube’s steering group, which gave her the opportunity to contribute to wider business development early on.

Later, in 2023, a new opportunity opened up in marketing. Johanna was asked whether she would be interested in taking on a team leadership role.

Although the transition happened within Simucube, it felt less like stepping into something new and more like returning to familiar ground: she had worked with marketing and communications before, and the passion for it had never really gone away.

The move first led her into the operational leadership of the marketing team and later, in spring 2025, into her current role as Director of Marketing and Communications. Today, her responsibilities include leading marketing and communications, supporting team members in their work and development, and contributing to broader commercial and company-level initiatives, like being part of the Steering Group.

What makes the role especially rewarding is not only the scope of responsibility, but also the chance to help build something bigger than her own individual contribution. Johanna is motivated by what she can create together with others and by the opportunity to support the future direction of the company.

A lifelong interest in language, communication, and advertising

Although Johanna’s path has included several different roles, her interest in marketing and communication goes back much further.

“I’ve been interested in advertising since I was a child. I even had TV commercials recorded on VHS tape,” she laughs.

Johanna is especially drawn to language. The way words can create meaning, emotion, humor, and connection.

“Language fascinates me. I enjoy playing with words, meanings, and all the different ways communication can work.”

That creative and strategic side of communication is one of the reasons she enjoys her current role so much. For Johanna, marketing and communications are not just business functions. They are powerful ways to shape how a company is understood, experienced, and remembered.

The most rewarding part: seeing people grow

When Johanna talks about what motivates her most in her current role, she speaks first and foremost about people.

The most rewarding moments are the ones when she sees team members grow into their roles, gain confidence, and find their own strengths. Helping others clarify their direction, discover what they are good at, and dare to step forward is something she finds deeply meaningful.

“The best moments are when people begin to come out of their shell, get excited, become braver, and succeed.”

Johanna wants to create opportunities for others and help people flourish in marketing and communications in ways that feel natural and motivating to them. In leadership, that is where she finds her strongest sense of purpose.

A culture built on trust, freedom, and caring

When Johanna describes Simucube’s culture, she speaks about a company in transition: one that is growing and evolving while trying to find the right balance between freedom, creativity, and working as one aligned unit.

At the same time, she believes the atmosphere remains something distinctive. People care about their work, about one another, and about where the company is going. Everyday life includes trust, flexibility, and freedom, but also a genuine desire to build a workplace where people enjoy being together.

“Everyone who visits us notices the atmosphere. People here genuinely want to spend time together.”

For Johanna, that human side of Simucube matters greatly. It is one of the things that has made her own path within the company so valuable, and one of the reasons she continues to feel proud to be part of it.

Proud to lead marketing and communications for products she believes in

Johanna also feels a strong connection to what Simucube creates. She describes Simucube quality as something customers can trust — not only in the product itself, but in the entire experience surrounding it, from customer support to the high standards behind the work.

For her, one of the highlights has been seeing ActivePedal Ultimate make its way into the world. At the time, she was working as a project manager and led the project from that perspective, making the moment especially meaningful. After all the work behind the scenes, seeing the product finally come to life and reach customers felt truly special.

“Only a crazy company would take on a project like that — and then turn it into a success,” she says with a smile.

Being able to say she has helped build products used by some of the world’s best sim racing and real-life drivers is something she sees as genuinely special. It also makes her work in marketing and communications especially meaningful: there is nothing quite like communicating about products you truly believe in.

For Johanna, that pride is closely tied to Simucube’s position as a technology leader in the industry. It is meaningful to work with products that are known among enthusiasts and professionals alike as some of the best in sim racing — and to help tell the story behind the innovation, ambition, and expertise that make that reputation possible.