Standards Leader

  • Full-time

Company Description

IKEA Communications AB

What if you could inspire to make everyday life just a little bit better?
The answer is simple: You can. This is what motivates us at IKEA. We’re constantly searching to find new ways to be better. We use insights from real life at home all over the world, learning about the needs and dreams of people. We use our home furnishing knowledge to help inspire people with ideas and solutions that will help them live the life they want.

At IKEA Communications, we’re people-centric, have a passion for making great stuff, and we aim to be the best communication partner for the whole of IKEA. We work closely and together with our colleagues across IKEA, creating state-of-the-art communication at the lowest price. Located in Älmhult, Sweden, we’re a melting pot of many different nationalities and cultures. Because in order to make things better for the many, we want to involve people from all parts of the world. Nonetheless, we never forget our Swedish heritage that forms the backbone of who we are today.

We’re on the lookout for passionate doers, idea makers, creative thinkers - people who want to find answers to everyday problems in people’s lives, for society and the planet.

Do you also believe in celebrating the everyday life? Do you want to be part of making it happen from idea to paper or pixel? Then keep on reading.

Job Description

The Digital Area is set up to connect, enable and support all IKEA Communications Areas with IT systems and tools to create, produce and deliver communication in the smartest, most automated and cost-efficient way possible.  
 
The Digital Lab is part of the Digital Area and drives the digital development and innovation work in the spatial computing area for all IKEA companies. The Digital Lab is right now looking for a Standards Leader. 

As a Standards Leader in the IKEA Digital Lab, you will drive standardization work within and outside IKEA, doing strategic forecasts for technology. You will also work with early digital IPR and you will be a contact person for IKEA towards technology universities in the field of spatial computing, computer graphics software and hardware. 

The Standards Leader within the area of Computer Graphics and 3D is someone who acts as a connection between IKEA needs and possible technical standards available on the market. That someone who can evaluate and explore real-time customer experience technology into possible support solutions. You will be part of a team investigating and evaluating new technologies towards IKEA’s needs while building a global network of innovators, universities and research and development environments.   

Examples of responsibilities in this role could be:

  • Establish standards for the development and use of digital applications or programming interfaces across IKEA in work areas within media, graphics, information and communication technologies connected to IKEA pre/post sale services; and in alignment with existing open source standardizations from organizations such as the Khronos Group, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the International Communication Institute (ITU), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) among others. 
     
  • Explore possible new/future digital technologies, foresee business opportunities and applications across IKEA, as well as the strategic partnerships that would support in positioning IKEA at the forefront of these developments. 
     
  • Create targeted forecasting presentations for IKEA stakeholders to facilitate decision making, give a better strategic understanding of the global digital landscape, the opportunities it offers, its possible implications in consumer behaviour, production/communication standards and pre/post sales drivers. 
     
  • Align strategic 3rd party partners with the current and forecasted landscape to enable faster iteration, and speed of deliverables. 
     
  • Collaborate with IKEA Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) department to set a strategy and execution of longer-term patent goals and deliverables. 
     
  • Support the IPR department with threat analysis, highlight problem areas and in filing business critical patents of current and future, mid/long-term pre/post sales service offering from IKEA. 
     
  • Promote IKEA at various industry events, forums or tech conferences. 
     
  • Contribute to the knowledge transfer and technical expertise in projects. 
     
  • Build a network of external partners and internal stakeholders. 

Qualifications

The Standards Leader we're looking for is someone that have a background as an engineer and who has deep understanding of open standards set by groups such as Khronos ESTI and ITU. 

You´ll need: 

  • 4+ years working experience with research in Computer Graphics industry or related area. 
     
  • Experience from standardization work within hardware and software computer graphics. 
     
  • Experience with handling early technical intellectual property rights (IPR) questions. 
     
  • Broad technical knowledge across all disciplines within Information Technology. 
     
  • Experience in project planning, follow up and steering others according to agreed plans. 
     
  • Ability to handle multiple parallel projects in different levels of development. 
     
  • Risk analysis and scenario planning. 
     
  • To be fluent in English both writing and speaking. 


Our Digital Lab is growing in every dimension and right now we're looking for a talented Standards Leader. Is this the next challenge for you? 

Additional Information

This is a place where you can focus on doing what you love. There are no dress codes or closed offices. No day is ever the same. All ideas are welcome. Everyone tries to pitch in when needed, and failures are seen as a way of learning. When you enter our building, we want you to feel that you can inspire billions of people all over the world. 

Are you ready to make the world a little better, together? We want to hear from you!

We look forward to receiving your application in English and link to previous work as soon as you have decided that this could be something for you. Please state in your application for which of the areas you have the most experience and passion. 

To get to know the history of the team, the company you will be part of and context of our work within spatial computing, please watch the video showcasing some of the past work and the areas the team is engaging in going forward (start at 40 min in if you are in a rush). 

This position was posted 2019-10-10 and may be online for up to 3 weeks following this date. We do not have an application deadline for this position. We take candidates into the recruitment process continuously and close the position down once we have found the right candidate. 

We do not accept applications by e-mail. If you are one of the candidates, we think have the required experience we will contact you by email or phone to plan a telephone interview. In some cases, recruitment processes may take time, so we kindly ask you to be patient in this regard.

If you have any questions regarding this position or recruitment process, please contact Recruiter, Jonas Levin at [email protected].

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