Director Accelerated Innovation

Unit - Husqvarna Group Innovation & Technology
The Innovation & Technology unit leads Husqvarna Group's forward-looking technology and innovation management initiatives, building a common vision, strategy and agenda in the medium-, to long-term perspective. Our mission is to drive initiatives in order for Husqvarna Group to reach and defend an innovation leadership position within and beyond our core domains of forestry, gardens, public green spaces & construction. We spearhead new areas in robotics, artificial intelligence, new business models and IoT that are above and beyond the focus of the core business in the Group's Brand Divisions.

Position/Job Description
The Director Accelerated Innovation is accountable to drive ideation and accelerated concept development within and beyond the current Husqvarna Group business domains. The innovation initiatives will be based on a Design Thinking approach and carried out by multi-disciplinary teams including both Husqvarna internal stakeholders as well as external partners and startups. The innovation initiatives are incubated, included a capped business case responsibility, in this unit until sufficiently mature from a technology, business and customer perspective to be handed over to running business in the Brand Divisions.
The profile of the role is thus to be compared with an "entrepreneur in residence" and there will be very high requirements in terms of drive, business acumen and the ability to network in order to create tangible results.
The Accelerated Innovation Director will be a part of The Accelerated Innovation & Venturing team which has the vision to be recognized as a leader in setting strategies, creating and bringing new innovations to market and drive hands-on collaboration with the best startups in the world.

Main responsibilities:
. Lead and participate operationally in innovation projects to ensure delivery of concepts and testing their business viability with customers, primarily in:
o Next generation robotics and autonomous systems
o Digital services and new business models
o Connectivity and IoT solutions
. Set up project based collaborations depending on the challenge at hand in order to create customer insights, hardware and software development, go to market plans for initial testing with customers etc. Typical stakeholders and partners will include:
o Key stakeholders from the Brand Divisions (as needed)
o Hardware and software companies
o Telcos
o Startups
o Contract manufacturers

. Participating in setting the direction, strategy and targets for the innovation projects together with the Innovation & Technology team and engaging in the Brand Division's ideation processes
. Contribute to establish a curios and experimental culture with iterative testing, learning and modification in order to "fail forward"
. Ensure an outside-in approach with regards to identifying opportunities and daring to challenge Husqvarna Group norms in terms of how solutions can be created and explored
. Ensure that best practices and value adding examples (ways of working) are and shared to the benefit of the rest of Husqvarna Group as well as being an ambassador for the Group in various external events

Key Success Factors for driving innovation in Husqvarna Group
. A strong drive and ability to identify, pitch and sell ideas as well as to see concepts through to a tangible result
. Strong networking capabilities, win-win mentality and ability to create or leverage existing relationships with any type of stakeholder who is needed in order to deliver on the innovation projects
. Strongly oriented towards practical problem solving and creating value-adding solutions
. Take hands-on leadership of people in a partnership setting and ensure all stakeholders honor their commitments
. A true interest in identifying and understanding unmet customer needs and work in creative ways to explore these opportunities

Qualifications
For this role, we require that you have relevant skills and competence from driving innovation (business impact is not created in a class room, academic education is not a formal requirement). As a functional experience, you should have agile development and design thinking methodologies, experience from work with creative ideation with a strong customer focus and proven track record of creating results through development of hardware and digital to create complete solutions. There should also be a proven experience of business accountability.

For leadership experience, you have a proven track record of having led multi-disciplinary, cross-functional innovation initiatives. Preferably, you are having experience from both startups/scale-ups as well as knowing how to navigate in a corporate environment. It is highly important that you have the ability to collaborate and manage team members in a remote structure.

We are looking for a "can-do attitude" with the ability to be flexible and think in new ways. You have an ability to influence others and make them believers in ideas that may (and probably will be) very different from the normal ways of working in the company along with a conviction that we can make a dent in the universe. We are looking for a strong sense of accountability for your own results and deliverables but also knowing that failure is not a bad thing as long as you extract real learnings from it. We prefer if you have an extensive experience from working in a global environment, with multiple stakeholders that are not co-located and/or may have cultural differences.

Location
The position is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Travel is expected to visit and collaborate with partners in the innovation ecosystems Husqvarna Group is engaged.
How to apply
Please send in your applications with CV and cover letter until January 13, 2019.

For more information about the position, please contact:
Hiring manager - Björn Axling, Bjorn.Axling@husqvarnagroup.com

For more information about the recruitment process, please contact:
Recruiter - Rizah Ferati, rizah.ferati@husqvarnagroup.com

Union representatives
Unionen - Soili Johansson, 036-14 62 08, soili.johansson@husqvarnagroup.com
Sveriges Ingenjörer; Akademikerföreningen (Represents all Saco-förbund) - Fredrik Lindström, 036-14 74 29, fredrik.lindstrom@husqvarnagroup.com.


Husqvarna Group
Husqvarna Group is a global leading producer of outdoor power products for forest, park and garden care. P