Katri Pynnöniemi is an associate professor at the University of Helsinki (Aleksanteri-institute) and holds Mannerheim Chair of Russian Security Studies. The joint professorship between the University of Helsinki and the National Defense University was established in August 2017. Pynnöniemi's responsibilities include development of research on Russian security policy at the University of Helsinki and at the National Defense University. 

Pynnöniemi leads the working group of the Mannerheim professorship, which brings together researchers and experts whose research topics are related to the central issues of Russia's foreign and security policy and thereby produce new research information on the factors of change in Finland's strategic operational environment.

In his own research, Pynnöniemi examines the change in Russia's strategic thinking, especially the threat analysis and the assumptions that guide it, the war rhetoric supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, and the factors of change in Russia's foreign and security policy.