Competence Hub Development Manager - Software Engineering

We are on the journey to consolidate the digital capabilities and business processes at Retail Concept across the leadership areas IKEA Retail Experience, Brand & Marketing, Learning and Development and Expansion. A journey that needs passionate people who embrace change and development, dare to question, and want to make a difference. If that sounds like you, come and join us. Together we can do great things so IKEA can be an even better home furnishing retailer in the future.

The main responsibility areas in the Retail Concept Operations (RCO) following the new Inter IKEA operating model are:

• Retail processes End-to-End
• Digital capability areas
• IKEA.com and IKEA.net channels
• ROSS

The job as Software Engineering Manager sits within the whole RCO, but is particularly assigned to a digital capability area.

About you

You believe that creating great digital products means that they are fit for purpose, and software engineering is a means for supporting the business. You have good experience of leading and managing others, extensive experience in software engineering principles, are used to working together with architecture and engineering leaders, and you are good with people as 70% of this job is nurturing engineers. This job as Competence Hub Development Manager at RCO, you have strong curiosity in and interest in the IKEA concept, understand the retail system landscape, and the IKEA value chain well. This job includes primarily people management, but we expect you to also lean forward in order to develop the engineering practices within our organization and at Inter IKEA as a whole or drive other topics as appropriate and needed.

As Competence Hub Development Manager you will:

• Lead the team/competence hub by example, coach, and motivate co-workers.
• Be responsible for attracting, recruitment, development, performance management, retention, and succession plans for software engineers.
• Responsible for taking an active role in driving the competence agenda: Identify needs and gaps and build leadership and competence plans and secure upskilling to meet the short- and long-term business needs.
• In close cooperation with Capability and Product Area managers, secure optimal performance through right competences allocated to all digital products connected to the area and the capability area goals.
• In close collaboration with the relevant engineering networks, set standards and guidelines to secure commonality and uniformity within the area and across Inter IKEA. For example, Digital Engineering and Technology Platform area of Network of expertise.
• Establish and manage costs and budget; continuously use resources in an optimal way to secure business goals. Set and communicate agreed business goals.
• At any time, act as an ambassador of IKEA values and role model for fact-based business leadership.
• Lead implementation of ways of working based on commonality & uniformity.
• Taking on additional assignments based on capability area business needs.

We also believe that you have a combination of the following knowledge, capabilities, and motivation:

Knowledge:

• You have good knowledge of all software engineering building blocks such as engineering principles, software development methodologies, secure coding, verification and quality, requirement management, and product management.
• You have a solid technology understanding, enabling you to understand the architects, product teams, and individual software engineers' needs.
• Strong knowledge in IKEA leadership and team dynamics.
• Knowledge and understanding of the IKEA processes and organizations and today, especially the new IKEA operating model: People, Process, Data & Technology.
• Good understanding of how your everyday work adds customer value by delivering results.
• Good knowledge of retail systems as that is the primary assignment of Retail Concept company unit.
• Experience in project management and in vendor and contract management.
• Capability to lead business through people by demonstrating leadership capabilities.
• Capability to deliver results through involving and engaging people & to build trust and relationships and handle multiple stakeholders.
• Capability to inspire and create a sense of togetherness, belonging, and trust within a team.
• Capability to represent IKEA towards external suppliers.
• Ability to communicate in a clear, structured, and honest way in fluent English.
• Leadership is everyone’s responsibility at IKEA. Leadership behaviors differ depending on your position and your level of leadership – leading myself, leading others, leading leaders, and leading matrix partners.
• Capability to lead with IKEA values. Working together, i.e., collaborate and co-create.

Motivation:

• High interest in technology, digitalization, and finding new ways of working.
• Highly motivated to lead people & secure competence development.
• A desire to dare to do things differently, contributing to dynamic teams.
• Passion for planning and leading in a global assignment.
• Motivation to drive and develop the business and yourself to deliver excellent results.
• A can-do entrepreneur mindset.
• Have an agile mindset, move with speed and direction.

We also believe that you have the following required work experience/background:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering.
• Previous experience working in software product development in a customer-facing environment in general for 7+ years and at least 3+ years as a manager/leader in a large company.
• Preferred: Experience working in software product development in a customer-facing environment in general for 10+ years and at least 5+ years as a manager in a large company.

This position is full-time (40 hours per week) and can be located in Delft, the Netherlands or Malmö, Sweden. Some travel will be required.

Please send your CV in English latest 19th of November 2024. We really want to get to know you, so make sure you tell us why you want to work at IKEA and why you would be a good fit for this role.

In this role you will be reporting to the Software Engineering Manager David Hagland. If you have any questions regarding the recruitment process, feel free to reach out to recruiter Linnéa Dietrichson at linnea.dietrichson@inter.ikea.com

We look forward to receiving your application!