Head of Exterior Design

Who are we?
Volvo Cars is a company on a mission; to bring traditional car manufacturing into a connected, sustainable and smart future.

What you’ll do
As Head of Exterior Design, you will be leading an immensely talented team of diverse designers from early conceptual design through final execution and industrialization of Volvo products.The successful candidate will be based in the Gothenburg studio. You will be a leader in the Automotive Design Team that includes Exterior, Interior, Visualization and CMF as a holistic team under our Head of Automotive Design Nicholas Gronenthal. 
In Volvo Cars the Global Head of Design, Jeremy Offer, reports directly to our CEO, Jim Rowan, which offers a great amount of flexibility and dialogue in the development of our product lineup. This group is uniquely positioned to help show the way forward for Volvo Cars. 
We also believe you will:  
•    Focus on leadership development and team building, lead the exterior teams including all people management tasks, such as continuous dialogues, performance review and salary setting. 
•    Manage the development of entire automotive exterior from early concept sketch through to production.
•    Guide designers through ideation to final concept generation
•    Leading 3D teams from early concept to final execution in analogue and digital mediums
•    Perform all research and design exploration for new vehicle Exteriors in close collaboration with design strategy and other business wide stakeholders.
•    Responsible for project timing and budget of Exterior design department
•    Work closely with design departments, brand, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain in cross-functional teams for implementation of Exterior design for production vehicles
•    Develop strong relationships with key suppliers and Volvo plant-based personnel at all levels to ensure that class-leading design is delivered in production.
•    Organize professional Exterior design presentations for development groups and executive management.
•    Work across disciplines within design to develop strategies, which will appeal to new thoughtful and tech savvy customers.
•    Stay current with latest trends in automotive exterior and interior design as well as consumer electronics, product, fashion, architectural and related design field.

In this role we believe it is key to have the ability to travel, showcase passion, and exhibit dedication to learning, while also embracing and integrating into a modern, flexible work schedule.
What you‘ll bring
You will bring your positive attitude with deep understanding of many design disciplines with an emphasis on leading full car programs from start to finish. While your responsibility will be exterior design, having a multidisciplinary background is a plus as our range of customers and use cases for our products requires an open dialogue with the other disciplines in the Automotive Design Team. At Volvo Design we have an emphasis on trust and integrity with all our employees. This leader will be required to build a team around those principles and feel comfortable in an open dialogue with the entire team during the design process. Collaboration, time management and communication skills will be key to leading this team and developing a relationship with the broader business. We believe the successful candidate will also have: 
⁃    10+ years’ experience in OEM/Startup/Agency environment
⁃    5+years of people management experience
⁃    Deep understanding of modern industrialization and execution
⁃    Understanding of UX and its integration into our products
⁃    Clearly able to demonstrate expertise in Exterior Design Leadership.
⁃    Multi-faceted design background/skill set.
⁃    Clear design philosophy and can articulate it in an inspirational fashion.
⁃    Able to demonstrate a strong aesthetic sense.
⁃    Expert knowledge of materials, component technology and key automotive systems.
⁃    Proficient in the development of concepts, insights, and perspectives on design attributes.
⁃    A keen awareness of “cutting edge” technical developments that influence design.
⁃    Well versed in the world of design and able to draw on design trends and inspirations beyond automotive.
⁃    Experience from working in different parts of the world.
⁃    An excellent knowledge of emerging technologies and competitive design trends
⁃    Master skills in 2d sketching and 3d execution in digital and analogue mediums.
⁃    Hands on Exterior design manager with digital skills in Photoshop, sketching, Vred/Keyshot and basic Alias or equivalent.
Want to know more? We hope so
We’d love to receive and review your application no later than March 15th . To apply, please submit your CV and Portfolio in one PDF document. If you want more information about the role and its responsibilities or simply to learn a bit more about the team, please reach out to the Lead Recruiter at simona.popencu@volvocars.