Product Engineer - Purchasing Development - Category Area Food - Protein

One brand, a full value chain, and many, many people – that’s us in a nutshell. 

Spread all over the world, we have a passion for home furnishing and an inspiring shared vision: to create a better everyday life for the many people.  We do this by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. 

IKEA Supply is responsible for securing that the product offer is produced and delivered to our customers. We lead the supply agenda across many functions and work together with all business areas, different business units, but also retail markets to secure customer availability in all markets and sales channels at lowest total cost. 

Do you have a solid base in food manufacturing and food product development methodologies? Would you like a position where you work in a truly international environment? Then this might be a chance for you!

The Category Area Food - Protein in King of Prussia, PA, is now looking for our first Product Engineer to join the team.

About IKEA

IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad. Our first restaurant opened in 1959 - just one year after the first IKEA store in Älmhult. Today, we operate IKEA restaurants in more than 460 stores across more than 50 markets. Every year, our restaurants, bistro, and Swedish Food Market attract over 500 million guests with our iconic products like Swedish meatballs and hot dogs.  With the recently added plant balls, we are bringing a modern taste of Sweden to the many people, worldwide. .

In the Category Area Food, we lead the global purchasing agenda, material direction, responsible sourcing, and food safety and quality compliance agenda for the entire food range in IKEA. With over 170 colleagues located globally across Europe, North America, Asia, and other regions, we work closely with our supplier partners.

The Category Area Food - Protein is part of Category Area Food, which works alongside both internal and external partners to offer the food products served at all IKEA Restaurants, Bistros, and Swedish Food Markets.

About the Job
You will join the Category Area Food - Protein and report to the Business Development Manager (BDM). The Product Engineer is responsible to lead the development and implementation of new products, the moves of products from one supplier to another one and the improvement of existing products based on quality performances and customer expectations, in close collaboration with our colleagues in Range & Supply. You will secure scalability for further implementation at other suppliers in time and full compliance to IKEA Food Requirements. Your responsibilities will include overseeing both food products and their packaging, and actively participating in the raw material agenda and food innovation agenda.

About You
This position requires a candidate who has the ability to establish and uphold business relationships, excellent communication skills, a strong team player, and capable of respecting values while being persistent. The candidate should possess the skill of prioritization and being capable of adapting to changes easily and taking responsibility when necessary.

• A background in food engineering, quality and product/production development.
• Experience from food engineering and food industry is a must.
• Preferably having an engineering education and at least 2-5 years of working experience.
• Preferred knowledge of product development tools and process
• Good communication skills and fluent in English
• Excellent stakeholder management and ability to build relationships.
• Good project management skills
• Proactive approach

At IKEA, we value diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are committed to providing coworkers with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We encourage individualism and invite you to come join our team and be yourself with us!  

We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability status, or any other applicable characteristic protected by law. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need.   

Want to learn more about current opportunities? Come say Hej (hello in Swedish) here:  https://about.ikea.com/en/work-with-us 

The job location for this position is in King of Prussia, PA. Travelling nationally and internationally is a part of the assignment since our engineers work closely with our suppliers. The selection process is ongoing, and we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.