Data Management Leader | Data & Product | Data Management & Performance

We are on the journey to transform our digital capabilities, bringing core business processes, people, data & technology together - an enabler for IKEA to become an even better home furnishing retailer in the future. 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   

Inter IKEA Group is organized in three core businesses - Range, Supply and Retail Concept - and five enabling functions. Together we contribute to the success of IKEA and share responsibility for the franchise offer.  

The enabling functions lead key common activities in networks across Inter IKEA Group, as well as cover specific needs for the core businesses. The five Enabling functions are Operations Management, Business Performance & Support, Communication, Sustainability and People & Culture.   

Operations Management leads and holds together the development and maintenance of a common foundation for how we work together across the value chain, our operating model. We enable strategic movements towards the IKEA goals through the strategic landscape and work closely with all parts of the value chain to achieve them. It includes teams for business insights, capability and process development, strategy and roadmap, data and product, and technology.  

Our mission in the Inter IKEA Group is to build a strong data foundation to enable the growth of IKEA. It covers, among other things, sustainability data and material data, transforming it into a trusted and democratic resource. It empowers IKEA co-workers, suppliers, and customers to make sustainable and efficient decisions across the value chain—giving us the means to understand our past, make informed decisions in the present, and simulate the future impact of different choices. 

We have chosen to organize our work in a data and product paradigm where we are building empowered teams that have the privilege to take responsibility while being supported by servant leaders.   

Data Management & Performance within Operations Management has the ambition of securing quality, connected, available data throughout the IKEA value chain. We provide the competence and deliver the needed tooling to ensure this. We work closely every day with our business and product teams that deliver cutting-edge, data-driven solutions to the many IKEA co-workers. 

As Data Management Leader, you drive the evolution of data management across Inter IKEA, from current to future state, and lead how our data management practice is shaped and implemented across multiple domains. You set direction across several domains at once, working closely with domain specialists, product organisations and senior stakeholders to build a consistent, organisation-wide approach to data governance. 

The point of all this is practical: solving real business problems and making data genuinely usable for the people and products that depend on it. You combine strategic thinking with hands-on platform experience, so you can guide teams through actual implementation choices, not just principles. You'll help shape what good data management looks like at IKEA, with a clear focus on usability and impact, and build support for that across the organisation. 

You will: 

• Set direction and priorities for data management across multiple domains, working with product organisations, senior stakeholders and the wider data & analytics strategy to solve concrete problems for the business and its users. 
• Lead the development of our data management framework, including governance practices, metadata management, business glossaries, data lineage and data catalog capabilities, using platforms such as Collibra, Databricks and similar tools. 
• Work with product teams to build and improve data products, making sure they're designed around what users actually need rather than governance for its own sake. 
• Build and maintain data standards, policies and accountability across assigned domains, working through domain specialists and data stewards. 
• Shape our approach to data sharing and exchange between internal domains and external partners, in line with regulatory requirements, security policies and business needs. 
• Grow data literacy and adoption of data management practices across the organisation through coaching, stakeholder engagement and knowledge sharing. 
• Help resolve complex, cross-domain data quality problems, deciding where to focus on error detection, process control or process redesign. 
• Represent data management in strategic discussions, and help others understand how technology and process changes affect our data. 

We're looking for an experienced data management professional who's equally comfortable influencing senior stakeholders and getting hands-on with the platforms that make data work day to day. You care about solving real problems with data, not managing it for its own sake — a governance framework is only worth as much as the value it creates for the people using it. You have an entrepreneurial streak: you like challenging how things are done and pushing for something better. You're energized by leading work that spans the organisation, and by making the case for change to people who don't report to you. 

To be successful in this role, the following knowledge, skills, and experiences would be valuable: 

• Leadership and business development experience from complex, matrixed organisations. 
• Strong knowledge of the Master Data field, including driving modern data quality practices, strategies and technical tools at scale. 
• Hands-on experience with data management and governance platforms such as Collibra, Databricks or comparable tools, enough to guide others credibly. 
• Experience working with data products, data catalogs, metadata repositories and lineage solutions, with a clear focus on usability and adoption. 
• A track record of using data to solve real business problems, not just document or govern it. 
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with proven ability to influence and drive change across senior business and digital leadership. 
• Experience working in product-oriented organisations and agile delivery models is considered beneficial. 
• Data modelling expertise is beneficial, along with a good understanding of underlying business processes and systems. 
• Solid understanding of information governance and data management methodologies, and how to apply these in practice across an organisation. 
• Ability to judge how technology changes will affect data at a strategic level. 
• Master's degree or similar/higher qualifications in statistics, physics, mathematics, econometrics, computer science or related. 

This role is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based in Malmö. We look forward to receiving your application. Please apply in by submitting your CV. Internal candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. 

For any questions regarding the application please contact [email protected], 

We always recruit based on values, competence, potential and diversity. We will first consider co-workers employed at Inter IKEA Group impacted by organizational changes. For this specific recruitment priority will be given to impacted co-workers in Inter IKEA Systems Service AB, Inter IKEA Technology Services AB and Inter IKEA Systems BV provided competence requirements are met for the role This role is published as part of an internal recruitment process connected to our organisational changes. It offers an opportunity for co-workers whose experience and competence may be relevant.