Range & Product Design Leader – Material & Appearances

Älmhult is the home of IKEA of Sweden. Here the IKEA range is developed and made available to stores and customers all over the world. We are here to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. That is our vision and ambition. Today at IKEA we are on an exciting journey to offer desirable and affordable design, create better products and better homes for many more customers around the world as we continue our expansion, meet new needs and challenge 

The product range is our identity, and one of the most important tasks of the Range & Product Design matrix is to enable and ensure that we live up to the IKEA vision - To create a better everyday life for the many people. As a part of the Range and product design matrix organisation, you will find yourself amongst passionate colleagues that in different ways lead, facilitate and inspire the IKEA vision to come alive. Co-creating a more surprising, forward-leaning affordable and desirable offer in close collaboration with partners and stakeholders throughout the entire value chain. 

Are you passionate about colours, materials, patterns and finishes? Is your dream to contribute to and influence on new materials and finishes to enable the development of better products and life at home? Are you a true collaborator and love sharing your knowledge with others? 

Then this might be the job you have been waiting for! 

In this assignment you lead, promote and inspire the material appearance design agenda throughout IKEA with the purpose to secure the preconditions for HFBs to deliver a complete and inspiring range offer that truly represents IKEA identity at the lowest price. 

Your main task is to create prerequisites for working with styles and trends in colours, materials, patterns and finishes (CMF), to unleash creativity, build competence, stretch innovation and enable the development of better products that strengthen the IKEA Identity.  

You are a key player in the transformation of knowledge and insights in life at home, into materials, finishes, patterns and colours, and you act as competence centre / ambassador for how to interpret and implement global styles and CMF trends in the IKEA context, always promoting a strong IKEA Identity. 

You facilitate and enable common decisions to happen across HFBs in connection to styles and CMF trends with the ambition to secure a rich and well-coordinated offer across the total range, and in close collaboration with the Production and Samples team, you are a key contributor to the pre-production and development of patterns, colours, materials and surfaces to be utilized by the HFB`s across the total offer. 

You are a main contributor to the development of material expression frameworks and other sub-strategies within Range and Product Development and have a close collaboration with IKEA’s internal capabilities, development teams, innovation teams, manufacturers and suppliers to identify, evaluate and qualify new materials and finishes for future use. 

To make a difference in this assignment you are inspired by the IKEA Identity and able to forward that inspiration and energy to others. You are also a positive, including and curious development partner with a strong can do attitude. You enjoy working with and through others and to find new and creative ways to ensure execution. We would like you have a strong interest in and ability to formulate yourself both visually and verbally. 

You are well organised and hold the ability to manage and overview the complete range offer, on a holistic as well as on a detailed level 

In this role you report to Product Design Manager.  The position is located in Älmhult, Sweden.  

Does this sound like something you would love to be part of?  

We really want to get to know you, so make sure you tell us why you would be a good fit for this role. 

We look forward to receiving your application – CV and letter of motivation – in English latest 9th of January, 2022. Please note that we will be interviewing continuously, which means that we may close the application process earlier than stated if we find the right candidates. 

If you have any questions about the assignment, please contact hiring manager, Henrik Heegaard Christensen via henrik.heegaard.christensen@inter.ikea.com or People & Culture Recruiter Jakob Bergström at +46 70-147 48 90