Shelter Architect – Better Shelter, Stockholm

Do you want to make a difference in people’s lives? Do you wish to be part of an organization with the mission of building shelters for displaced people all over the world? Are you an Architect or a Product Designer who wants to work in a small but determined and energetic team? On behalf of our client Better Shelter, we are now looking for an experienced and self-motivated Shelter Architect. If this is you, read more and apply today!

About Better Shelter 

Better Shelter is a humanitarian nonprofit organization based in Sweden. They started as a small social enterprise in 2010, in partnership with UNHCR and the IKEA foundation, with a big mission dedicated to sheltering displaced persons with safety, dignity, and hope on their path towards a more stable life in a permanent home of their own. Better Shelter develops, produces, distributes, and supports partners with shelter solutions that can be used as temporary shelters in humanitarian responses due to wars and natural disasters. They have delivered 77 000 shelters to 78 countries and improved the living conditions of more than 350,000 people. In the coming years, Better Shelter is set to develop a new product offering of sustainable shelters that can adapt to climate, culture, and context, be safe and dignified while temporary, and minimize the environmental footprint. Learn more about Better Shelter here: www.bettershelter.org

About the role 

You will be part of the product team and report to the Head of Product. Your main responsibilities are to create concepts and solutions to realize the product strategy. You are expected to host workshops independently and together with partners, engineers, and users. You will work closely with the rest of the team led by the Head of Product. You will have close contact with humanitarian partners to evaluate concepts and you are expected to read and learn from humanitarian shelter strategies and guidelines. Furthermore, the scope of the role will consist of the following:

 Develop concepts for Better Shelter’s new product offering
Gather and interpret the needs of multiple stakeholders 
Prepare visualizations and prototypes to describe product solutions 
Evaluate concepts from a user perspective 
Build prototypes and describe concepts and solutions 
Support humanitarian partners with building techniques (architectural shelter design) 
As part of working at Better Shelter you must like to travel and sometimes also to exposed or dangerous areas. Better Shelter has a security policy in place as well as additional insurance and you may be offered external training (Hostile Environment Awareness Training) 
Supporting other functions with any of the organization’s relevant tasks. 


Qualifications and experience                                                             

Degree in architecture or design
Minimum 3 years of relevant working experience
Experience in developing houses/shelters or physical products
Experience visualization using CAD or similar and good presentation skills.


 Meritorious

Experience in construction or production techniques
Experience in Life Cycle Analysis and sustainable design
Experience in Sketch Up, AutoCAD, Adobe CS, MS Office, or Solid Works
Experience in the humanitarian sector
Fluency in an additional language (e.g., Ukrainian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Arabic, etc.).


We put great value on your personality and soft skills. We expect you to be innovative and creative as well as have a positive attitude and be self-motivated. We also expect you to be hands-on and good at building/constructing prototypes. You should also enjoy and be confident in working with new stakeholders as well as share Better Shelter’s vision and mission.

About the employment

You will be directly hired by Better Shelter and the employment is full-time (100 %). You will be covered by a collective agreement that among other things states 30 days of vacation and additional health insurance. The position is on-site, and you will be offered flexible working hours and international travel, sometimes to exposed areas, which is expected occasionally during the year. The starting date is as soon as possible, according to an agreement. 

Interested in this role?

We will interview on an ongoing basis, so please submit your application with your CV and portfolio as soon as possible. For questions, please do not hesitate to contact dalia.zana@novare.se.