Global VP Digital New Business Platform - Ingka Group – New Business Platform

At IKEA, our mission is to create a better everyday life for the many people in their homes, communities, and the planet we share. As part of Group Digital, we achieve this by shaping the future of IKEA through technology and data, building impactful, scalable, and sustainable digital products and services. We're looking for someone passionate about bringing amazing experiences to life for customers, someone who deeply understands how to leverage marketplace platforms with complementary services and a new value proposition to enhance online and offline engagement with the IKEA brand globally.

You know how to balance long-term digital strategies with short-term solutions. You're comfortable with ambiguity, confident navigating executive leadership, while also ready to roll up your sleeves and get into the trenches. Product roadmaps, agile delivery, engineering challenges, multi-location teams, and challenging deadlines are your thing! If you have prior experience building and operationalizing marketplaces, we'd love to hear how you can help us deliver on our purpose to care for the many people and the planet.

About the Role

We're looking for a Digital Platform Manager to lead the strategic direction and development of our New Business Platform. This platform currently supports our pilot for services marketplace and our second-hand marketplace – Ikea Preowned. This position is an excellent fit for a results-oriented digital leader possessing a robust technology foundation, demonstrated success in building digital products for marketplace environments, and in-depth expertise across digital marketplaces, platform ecosystems, and the convergence of product strategy, technology implementation, and commercial operations. You'll play a critical role in shaping the digital foundation of our new marketplace offerings, delivering a seamless and scalable experience for partners, customers, and internal teams alike.

This role will work closely with other company digital areas to explore opportunities for creating a truly integrated customer experience and presenting a more complete and holistic offering. This person will report to the Digital Area Manager - New Business and Expansion (SVP New Business and Expansion).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities to succeed in this role:

• Extensive experience (at least 10+ years) building and managing digital marketplace platforms, with a strong understanding of marketplace dynamics (e.g., multi-sided platforms, network effects, third-party onboarding, curation, and governance).
• Proven leadership in agile product delivery and the ability to inspire high-performing cross-functional teams.
• Strong commercial acumen with a deep understanding of cost structures, monetization models, and value creation in a digital marketplace context.
• Demonstrable relevant knowledge of technology and/or software engineering, cloud-native architectures, and platform scalability in complex retail or e-commerce environments combined with good knowledge on how to enable a product-led organization, knowledge of how to set direction, create and manage plans, set budgets & goals, and follow up on OKRs across all channels.
• Experience working across multiple geographies and cultures in a fast-paced, matrixed organization.
• Proven experience collaborating with third-party partners to accelerate time-to-market and deliver digital solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, adept at engaging, communicating, and influencing senior business leaders and navigating complex stakeholder landscapes both internally and externally.

Your key responsibilities

• Set and lead the digital strategy for our New Business Platform with a focus on marketplace development and growth. Align closely with business leaders to ensure digital solutions drive business performance and customer value.
• Oversee the end-to-end digital product portfolio from platform foundations and partner integrations to customer-facing solutions, ensuring operational excellence, innovation, and scalability.
• Act as the internal and external ambassador of IKEA’s digital platform ambitions, representing the brand in industry forums and partner engagements.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team of product managers and engineers to deliver high-impact platform solutions that serve both internal business owners and third-party users.
• Create the right conditions for fast learning and iteration, and foster a culture of experimentation, agility, and outcome-driven delivery.
• Ensure platform compliance, data governance, and robust technical standards across all systems and integrations.
• Travel will be required

Requisite Education and Experience/Minimum Qualifications

• Degree with a focus on Engineering or related areas/equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Excels at the convergence of cutting-edge technology, impactful product strategy, and commercial acumen.
• Demonstrated success in leading the development or significant scaling of digital marketplaces, with a preference for retail, e-commerce, or platform-based service industries.
• Ambitious to harness digital innovation to unlock transformative growth and achieve substantial, positive business outcomes.
• Prior experience in managing and scaling teams of at least 80+ across multiple locations is desirable.

About Ikea

IKEA is the world’s largest home furnishings retailer with revenues of €45.1 billion in fiscal year 2024. The same year, IKEA’s 216,000 co-workers welcomed 899 million visits to its stores and 4.6 billion visits to IKEA.com.

IKEA is a value-driven company with a passion for life at home. The business was founded eight decades ago in rural Småland in southern Sweden, where people had to be resourceful, collaborate and make the most out of what they had. This heritage formed the IKEA business and continues to underpin its culture of, “togetherness, simplicity, and giving as well as taking responsibility.”

Within Ingka (strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system), Group Digital sets the digital agenda to keep IKEA leading in an uncertain and fast-moving environment. Group Digital drives the development, provision and operation of our digital products and services through the use of new and existing technology and agile delivery methods to deliver at pace. At the same time, we provide a home for digital skills to both develop and extend the technical, people and business skills needed to ensure continuous development and growth of our digital capability. This role sits in Group Digital.