With a career spanning from the early 1990s as a uniformed police officer to forensic leader and digitalization strategist, Mikael Lilja has played a key role in modernizing and developing Swedish police operations and the use of digital forensic.

During the 2000s, Mikael developed and implemented operational methods to meet an increased threat from organized crime with significant violent capacity for the local field officer in his role as operational commander in frontline policing, before taking over the leadership of the operation unit within his Police District.

During the 2010s, his responsibilities expanded to include several senior leadership roles and development projects within forensic science, digital forensics, and criminal investigations. As Head of Forensics in the county of Östergötland (2013–2015) and later for the three counties in Police Region East (2015–2021), Mikael led an efficiency and centralization initiative within laboratory operations, with the underlying objective of bringing together advanced laboratory expertise and officers working in the field.

As Head of the Laboratory Unit at the National Forensic Centre (NFC) in Linköping (2019–2020), Mikael brought regional experience into a comprehensive national reorganization of NFC and the forensic units of the Swedish Police regions. The transformation was challenging in many ways and required extensive change management focused on internal culture, accessibility, and collaboration, as the reorganization expanded NFC’s laboratory operational sites from one to eleven through an operational transfer process. After investigating and identifying regional and national development needs in 2021 to improve the use of surveillance technology within the police, Mikael has in recent years focused on strategic digitalization and research-driven development. As Regional Digitalization Coordinator since 2022, Mikael has led several it-related development projects and trained more than 250 managers in change management based on the ADKAR model, with the goal of increasing organizational value from technological development overall. Today Mikael participates as an operational police representative in cross-sector research projects. These projects explore new ways of using AI and sensor technologies to improve crime scene documentation and information sharing, as well as collecting and visualizing investigative material in 3D models.

By combining operational street-level experience with strategic national leadership and knowledge in AI, forensics, and change management, Mikael has been instrumental in creating a more unified, efficient, and technologically advanced police organization.