• Job ID: 296571
• Date posted: 28/06/2025
  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 Finland’s 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

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• 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 methods—training 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

KEY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE ROLE

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• 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 world’s most loved brands, we would love to hear from you.