One brand, many companies, 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. This, together with our straightforward business idea, shared values, and a culture based on the spirit of togetherness, guides us in everything we do.

To offer 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. To meet the needs of our customers we have a unique business model and value chain. It includes product development, design, supply, manufacture and sales. And of course, it starts and ends with our customers.

As Purchasing Development, we purchase the materials and the production capacity to produce both home furnishing products and food. We have more than 1,200 co-workers global wide and operates in 27 locations, this includes 6 category areas and Wood Supply & Forestry.

IKEA Purchasing Services (Czech Republic) spol. s r. o. is a purchasing organization which cooperates with furniture and home furnishing manufacturers located in Europe on producing furniture with perfect design and quality for many people, and which ensures distribution into retail stores IKEA worldwide. We are a team of about 150 co-workers of over 20 nationalities.

At IKEA, we see things a little differently. We onboard our suppliers as partners with whom we create long-term relationships. We want them to grow with us, become more efficient and achieve lower prices.

• You can have the confidence and freedom to do things your own way, including organizing your time. Your well-being is our priority. A variety of rewarding work awaits you, which you will be able to combine alongside your hobbies or family.

• Use opportunities for learning and growth working with suppliers! You will be able to travel to look at various manufacturing companies, understand new and different technologies, people and cultures.

• Everybody is seen as a talent. In regular informal talks with your manager you can explore your development and career opportunities. We will support you on the way by internal and external trainings. We embrace making mistakes and learning from them.

In the New Carbon Steel team, we work together with IKEA colleagues and suppliers to secure the supply of  furniture. The Production Engineer (PNE) leads the engineering and quality agenda with the overall goal to improve customers’ satisfaction. The Production Engineer, an active member of the purchase team, is the main contact towards suppliers for quality & engineering areas, at the same time, secures production processes, handle quality deviations and ensure compliance to all IKEA requirements.

Your tasks will include:

• Being accountable for quality performance at suppliers.
• Perform product audits and production risk assessments.
• Secure full compliance of IKEA quality requirements.
• Secure production process control.
• Work with continuous improvement.
• Develop suppliers according to IKEA Supplier Operating Standard.
• Being an IKEA ambassador towards external partner.
• Execute agreed yearly Action Plan.
• Identify potential cost savings area together with Supplier.

You will work in a small, 3-member micro-team with a Business Developer who negotiates prices and take care of the overall commercial relation with the supplier and a Supply Planner who handles logistics. As part of the annual action plan, you will be responsible for the constant improvement of the quality of IKEA products as well as the production process and workflow through tools such as 5S, Lean, and machine capacity utilization. All with the aim of reducing production inefficiencies, in terms of sustainability and business ethics. You will also perform:

• Secure compliance to IKEA specification at suppliers all time
• Improving product quality, and secure quality assurance
• Act subject matter expert for production techniques, material grades
• Identify production efficiency opportunities and set plans with suppliers to run production improvement programs
• Developing relationships with suppliers – the micro-team regularly travels to the field in order to understand and solve issues firsthand, we see production from the ground up, help with the implementation of action plans, and cooperate in audit processes
• Data analytics – this will be a primary function and most of your office-hours

• Operation – set plans to start up new articles in production, solving product quality deviations

To be successful in this role, below competences are important for you.

• Preferred extended experience in steel manufacturing
• Proven experience in Quality & Compliance / Production environment, good knowledge of materials properties, production processes and technologies, as well as scientific or technical background (materials engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering) or equivalent experience - minimum 3 years of experience.
• The ability to think out-of-the-box and critically in the constant search for ways to improve our products.
• Analytical thinking, which you will use in analyzing processes from the beginning of product implementation, to data evaluation and finding improvements, cost savings, better design or quality.
• Patience and good communication to help you find common ground with suppliers of different nationalities and to meet IKEA’s business demands, as well as a preferred experience in suppliers management within quality/technical roles in multinational companies.
• The ability to manage time well, to balance between the factory floor and office work.
• Being an active driver (driving licence B) - travelling is a part of the assignment since our engineers work closely with our suppliers. 

This position will be based in Prague.

The selection process will take place continuously, so please send in your application (CV and letter of motivation) in English as soon as possible but latest February 15, 2024. Please note that we don’t accept application through email.

If you have any questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact Lucie Drastilová P&C Generalist ([email protected]).  If you have any questions regarding the position, please contact Miroslav Malek, Business Development Manager Category Carbon Steel ([email protected]). We are looking forward to receiving your applications!