Solution Architect

Join Our Transformation Journey at IKEA

In IKEA, we are on a journey to transform our operating model. One way to ensure long-term success and a fantastic partner, co-worker, and customer experience is to strengthen our Data & Digital Product Management capabilities. We are establishing data & digital product teams across Inter IKEA, bringing business processes, people, data, and technology together. A journey that needs passionate people who embrace change, dare to question, and want to make a difference. If that sounds like you, come and join us. Together, we can do great things! 😊

About the Area

Operations Management works together with operations teams across Inter IKEA to lead and develop the overall IKEA operating model and to enable strategic movements towards IKEA goals. It includes teams for business insights, capability and process development, strategy and roadmap, data and product, and technology and platforms.

Job Description

We are currently establishing a product and platform-based organisation, where product areas will enable the development of the needed and prioritised capabilities across Inter IKEA. Our aim is to secure a strong and clear connection between business strategies and the goals for each product team. A new framework is being developed to define how we lead in the process and capability dimensions and how this will connect to the data product, digital product, and platform management. Our aim is to create a clear and simple framework for Inter IKEA that will enable product teams to deliver value to our customers, co-workers, and partners in an efficient and scalable way, connecting functions and improving collaboration across the IKEA value chain.

In the work it is expected to understand the current architecture, define a future-oriented target architecture, and a logical sequence of activities on how to reach the target state in a stepwise approach. For this role, we are specifically looking for a solution architect in the Azure technology area. You are a natural leader, a team player, and a person that actively collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to get progress and reach concrete business results.

Your Responsibilities

• Shaping ideas – in close collaboration with relevant internal and external stakeholders – into concrete, robust, and appropriate Process, People. Data, and Technology solution architectures and transition roadmap.
• Describe the current and future state of intended business change as well as the transition to reach the future state ensuring aligned and consistent business process and IT development across the IKEA value chain.
• Secure that the transition roadmap reflects the level of uncertainty of the future state. Balance the transformations of foundational building blocks with continued business value delivery.
• Communicate and baseline the solution architectures and transition roadmaps with relevant business and IT stakeholders within and across organisations.
• Collaborate closely with Enterprise architects and product stakeholders to improve architecture with learnings from the implementation.
• Bringing the Azure initiatives together, to define a common roadmap, aligned priorities and governance, together with teams across Inter IKEA. This starts with data, not technology.

About You

You will be an experienced and dynamic Solution Architect with a focus on Data and Product domains. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in digital and data products, data as a product, data management, possessing hands-on experience as a product owner, solution architect, or developer. This role requires excellent communication and collaboration skills, the ability to lead cross-functionally, and a strong understanding of data and analytics frameworks.

Data and Product Architecture Focus

With co-responsibility for the development and delivery of:

• D&P architecture principles, strategy, roadmap, reusable patterns, and the target architecture of the data landscape/products.
• Data and business capabilities.
• Support a culture of data-driven decision making across IKEA organisations.
• Work closely together with data scientists, data engineers, architects, analysts, data & digital product leaders, and other relevant roles across IKEA as well as in your team.
• Provide leadership within the Azure data landscape, fostering a culture of support and collaboration across the organisation.
• Drive continuous improvement, collaboration, and knowledge sharing of the data landscape and its value.
• Collaborate and communicate with other parts of the organisation to understand stakeholder needs and advise viable solutions.
• Experience in data architecture or solution architecture.
• Experience in Azure, Microsoft technologies.
• Architecture modelling expertise and a solid understanding of the underlying capabilities, processes, applications, data, and technology.
• In-depth knowledge of all angles of data, like data management, data governance, analytics, modelling.
• Technology knowledge of data platforms, data integration/sharing, and data management and governance tools.
• Act as the translator between different subject matter experts to move with a common understanding in the chosen direction.
• Translate concepts into concrete action plans.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of relevant job experience.
• Bachelor’s/University level in computer science, information technology, engineering, or another STEM disciple.
• Experience in agile practices and ways of working.
• Analytical skills and eye for detail.
• Planning and organisational skills.
• Effective communicator, able to present content and gain buy-in.
• Excellent English language skills (written and verbal communication).

More Information

This role is full-time (40 hours per week) and based in Delft, Netherlands, or Malmo, Sweden. This role sits in the Operations Management, Data and Product and reports to the Architecture Manager within Data & Product. If you have questions about the recruitment process, please connect with Jamila via jamila.harmal2@inter.ikea.com

Interested? Please send us your CV in English by October 30th.