Arbetsbeskrivning

Company Description

You see things a little differently. So do we. We believe in discovering and developing the talent in each of us. We invest in your passions and encourage you to grow with them. Come and see things a little differently with us! 

In Purchasing Development, we enable purchasing of sustainable and affordable home furnishing products, food & services and managing our indirect procurement by establishing and developing a global supplier network. We explore new business and market opportunities as well as innovate materials & technology and set the pre-conditions for cost-effective product development and production. We secure accessibility of affordable raw material from responsibly managed sources with a positive social and environmental impact within and beyond our own needs.

Category Area Electronics & Home Accessories is responsible for sourcing a variety of products that span from kitchen appliances, lighting solutions and connected products, to tableware and beautiful home decoration accessories such as candles and green plants for all IKEA stores globally. We are more than 200 co-workers in 12 different global locations. We are passionate about life at home, ambient & atmosphere, and technology applied to the home environment. We work closely with our suppliers across the world, and we are now looking for a Material and Innovation Developer to join our team!

Job Description

Is this your next challenge?

You should have a passion for front end development and for leading radical change. You would like to lead the development and innovation of the material in a global matrix organization. You have the ability to think out of the box, but together with an analytic and structured approach. You like to connect ideas from different fields and create new solutions. You have the ability to lead resources, without formal authority, to reach common goals.

Assignment

As a Material and Innovation Developer working with Category Area Electronics and Home Accessories, you will have a strategic role to faster developments of new materials & innovative solutions across the 9 Categories of the Category Area, in line with approved Material Plans and the IKEA Sustainability Strategy People and Planet Positive. You will have the responsibility to lead exploration and development projects and support business stakeholders, managers and leaders globally, across Category Area and Business units in strengthening and accelerating strategic material and innovation agenda. You will be part of a team of highly motivated and skilled Material & Innovation Developers who will work closely with the categories, suppliers and home furniture businesses (HFBs) to drive change across the value chains.

Your main responsibilities will be to:

• Based on the Material Plans and knowledge about life at home, identify, initiate, and lead material innovation projects until the material has either been handed over to a deployment leader or until the material has been deployed into a product solution
• Prepare and present development projects at relevant innovation councils, develop the project plan following the DNS process and lead and execute material and innovation development and support in deployment projects.
• Act as a specialist/subject matter expert or get the experts connected for the material and related production process/technology throughout the development process. Liaise with the Material Technology Engineer (MTE) for specific material details.
• Lead innovation through prototyping
• Identify, evaluate, develop, and maintain partnerships and potential new technologies (partnering to exploit technologies) relevant to the deployment of Material direction.
• Secure that all necessary agreements are in place together with legal counsel and that intellectual property is considered throughout the development process.
• Initiate IP research in connection to projects and/or areas of development, and initiate patent application process with the patent team.

Qualifications

Job-specific knowledge for the role:

• A university degree in engineering and equivalent job-related experience
• Proven experience in managing development projects in industrial setting
• Proven experience from indirect leadership of people in global organization
• Exceptional analytical skills for comparing sustainability (e.g. Life Cycle Assessments), cost, and quality impact of new materials
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Good communication and social skills in managing stakeholder relationships and collaborating with various project teams

Additional information

Please note that we have a preferred candidate for this position, while we encourage all candidates holding a similar ambition and finding the role interesting to apply.