Project Leader LEAN for IKEA Finland

At IKEA, our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. In a rapidly evolving world, we are committed to making IKEA more affordable, accessible, and sustainable for our customers. As the Country LEAN Leader, you will play a pivotal role in this journey, enabling continuous improvement and operational excellence across all functions. You will drive LEAN methodology and ways of working across the country, strengthening IKEA Finlands ability to improve productivity, reduce waste, increase coworker engagement, and ultimately enhance customer value. You will collaborate with leaders and teams to embed a culture of continuous improvement that accelerates our transformation and supports profitable growth. You will report to the Capital Market Area Business Navigation and Operations Manager and your matrix manager will be Country Business Development and Digital Manager. In this role, you are an inspiring change leader and coach with a passion for performance, people, and purpose. YOUR AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITIES - Drive and implement LEAN ways of working across country functions, stores, and units to improve productivity, quality, and efficiency, and to eliminate waste - Partner with country management and business owners to identify improvement opportunities aligned with business priorities and calculate potential value creation - Lead, coach and support leaders and teams in LEAN mindset, leadership, principles, tools and methodstraining both end-users and internal trainers - Facilitate workshops and improvement projects that enable transformation, innovation, and high performance - Build and maintain structures that support sustainable LEAN adoption across all units and functions - Actively participate in global LEAN networks, contributing insights, feedback, and best practices to improve Ingka-wide frameworks - Inspire a culture of continuous learning, curiosity, and improvement across all levels of the organization - Strengthen collaboration across functions, breaking down silos and promoting end-to-end thinking in everything we do YOUR STRENGTHS AT WORK - Excellent communicator and influencer clear, engaging, and confident with all stakeholders - Deep knowledge of LEAN or other continues improvement methodologies and operational excellence in a complex retail or customer facing environment - Strong facilitation, coaching and training skills with a hands-on and can-do mindset - Natural leader who builds trust, drives change, and enables teams to succeed - Proven ability to lead in complexity and ambiguity with agility and resilience - Collaborative by nature co-creating solutions and building networks across functions and countries - Passionate about people and performance, continuously striving to make things better KEY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE ROLE - Minimum 5 years of experience in customer-facing retail or operational roles - Demonstrated success in implementing LEAN or other continuous improvement strategies in operations - Strong stakeholder management and change leadership skills - Experience facilitating and managing cross-functional projects or transformations - Excellent analytical and problem-solving capabilities - Proven track record in coaching and developing people and teams - Solid command of English and Finnish, both written and spoken - Passion to gain IKEA knowledge, IKEA key values, and the IKEA culture - A passion for learning and embracing IKEA knowledge, key values, and culture is essential. Strong existing knowledge and understanding of IKEA's values and culture is a plus. If you are energized by making things better every day, inspired by developing people and operations, and ready to lead a LEAN transformation in one of the worlds most loved brands, we would love to hear from you. APPLY NOW!! The role is full time (37,5h/week) and permanent, and the place of work is the Capital market area. Please attach an updated CV & motivation letter (in English) with your application latest on Thu 24th July 2025, so we can get to know you better. IKEA, MORE THAN A JOB! World needs more people like you. So do we. Come to work with us just as you are. Working at IKEA is more than just a job with us you are part of an equal and diverse working community. A sense of belonging is important to our employees, and team spirit is at the heart of what we do. IKEA offers a variety of career paths and opportunities to develop yourself in roles that are right for you. We give you the opportunity to bring your ideas to the table to help us develop our work, and to create new IKEA success! We value all our employees equally and our pay is in line with the collective agreement for the retail sector. Your salary level will depend on your job role, your previous work experience and any relevant qualifications. In addition to your salary, you will also enjoy a wide range of comprehensive staff benefits, including flexible Smartum saldo, staff discounts on our products, healthy and delicious breakfast and lunch menus at very low prices in our staff restaurants, One IKEA Bonus, and much more!