Director R&D Laboratories

We are now looking for Director of R&D Laboratories

Reporting directly to the Head of R&D, you will be responsible for Vattenfall’s R&D laboratories in Älvkarleby, employing currently 75 people of different nationalities and covering a broad spectrum of areas such as material science, fluid mechanics, geotechnical science, machinery, civil engineering, and recently broadening to eco-hydraulics, electrical engineering, energy storage and communication technology. The laboratories consists of three main laboratory halls and several smaller buildings and workshops. The main purpose of the laboratories is to test and verify in physical large-scale models phenomena which cannot be studied theoretically as for instance fish migrations, dam safety and vibrations in large machines. In this role, you will be part of the R&D management team.

Main tasks and responsibilities

In this position, you will be overall responsible for Vattenfall’s R&D laboratories, including planning and operation of the facilities to fulfill the requests from the R&D portfolios, internal business stakeholders, and also external customers. You will also be overall responsible that the R&D Laboratories fulfill the current rules and regulations regarding healthy and safety, work environment, and quality. Together with your management team, you will work closely with the R&D Portfolios and relevant Business Areas in Vattenfall to ensure the efficient use of the laboratory infrastructure, maximizing the value for Vattenfall. Finally, you are responsible for the long-term development of the laboratories, including investments in infrastructure and machinery to keep them up to date.

Requirements

We are looking for:

You are an experienced manager, with 5-10 years of managerial experience in complex organisations. You have proven to be an excellent leader, naturally applying the Vattenfall leadership criteria. You are expected to have a very strong customer orientation, high level stakeholder management skills and ability to increase the operational efficiency and drive change.

Furthermore you have the following experiences and qualities:

• Successful track record in leading through other managers. Experiences of management in international environment are highly valued.
• Successful experience in managing change in a complex environment, and understanding of different cultures.
• Experience of working in a technology and innovation organization.
• Experience in managing / working in a laboratory environment, including planning experiments, test campaigns, and investments, and securing routines and processes for world-class healthy and safety
• Broad experience in at least some of the technologies areas covered by Vattenfall’s R&D Laboratories: material science, fluid mechanics, electrical engineering, civil engineering.
• Strong management, communication, problem solving and collaboration skills ensuring effective collaboration with business leaders/stakeholders.
• Ability to build and maintain trustful working relationships to peers, customers and staff.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, to take initiative and to follow-through
• Perfect command of both Swedish and English languages. Additional language skills are valuable, particularly in Vattenfall’s key countries (DE, NL, DK).