About the role
As Platform Manager for Compute, Storage & Database, you take responsibility for the key platform domains that keep IKEA running. We are moving beyond managing infrastructure toward building a Compute & Database-as-a-Service model, where you lead the creation of modern, automated, and self-service capabilities that empower our product teams to build and scale with ease. With a clear vision and roadmap, you guide technology choices and monitor market trends, ensuring strong lifecycle management that spans from initial design and financial governance to continuous improvement and modernisation.
Your leadership drives the shift toward cloud-native and integrated solutions, ensuring our platforms evolve to meet the needs of the many. By applying a product-thinking mindset, you measure success through the developer experience and the seamless delivery of infrastructure. This transformation relies on your ability to create As-a-Service Delivery, transforming compute, storage, and databases into intuitive, software-defined products that remove friction for engineering teams. You work in close partnership with our Public Cloud and Data Center teams to achieve Hybrid-Cloud Synergy, building a "Golden Path" that bridges on-prem reliability with public cloud agility across the entire IKEA value chain.
People leadership is the heart of this role. You grow high-performing teams, build competence for the future, and create an environment where innovation and collaboration can thrive. You manage budgets and optimise spend through Federated Accountability, providing the automated guardrails and FinOps governance that allow teams to own their own consumption, costs, and performance. By fostering strong DevOps practices and building productive supplier relationships, you help IKEA make better technology decisions that are always grounded in simplicity and purpose.
About you
You combine technical depth in high-availability systems with a strong product leadership mindset. You understand that "infrastructure" is now code, and you thrive on turning complex backend technologies into simple, consumable services. You lead with IKEA values, developing high-performing teams that understand that with empowerment comes the responsibility for excellence.
You are a champion of modern engineering, comfortable with:
Software-Defined everything: You bring a software engineering mindset to scale, using automation and Policy-as-Code (OPA) to manage tiered storage and distributed systems.
DBaaS & Data Governance: You have experience scaling Database-as-a-Service models that are secure-by-default and resilient.
Developer Experience (DevEx): You are passionate about shortening delivery cycles, ensuring that requesting a compute resource or a database is as simple as a single API call.
You navigate the full lifecycle of digital products from landing zone automation and release management to IT service operations, supported by frameworks like Agile and DevOps. Security, privacy, and risk management are not "extra steps" for you; they are a natural part of how you design resilient platforms.
As a people-centred leader, you enjoy making the complex simple and translating technology into clear business language. You understand IKEA鈥檚 strategic direction and use this to guide platform decisions that balance business needs with long-term value. You are a collaborator at heart, building trust across units and influencing others with clarity and purpose. Budget management, cost optimisation, and navigating fast-changing environments are familiar parts of your daily work, and you bring a structured, calm approach to even the most complex transformations.
To be successful in this role, the following knowledge, skills and experiences would be valuable:
Total Accountability: Proven experience in owning a large-scale infrastructure domain, balancing operational excellence with strategic modernisation.
Product-Led Mindset: Skilled in product management and operations at scale, with a track record of developing infrastructure "as-a-service" and a strong curiosity about technology trends.
IKEA Leadership: Demonstrates accountability, handles uncertainty and complex dependencies, leads with IKEA values, and shows pragmatism in decision-making.
Expertise in Platforms & Architecture: Strong understanding of technology ecosystems across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments, including DevOps, automation, and software engineering principles.
Software Engineering at Scale: Experience with DBaaS governance, tiered object storage, and high-availability distributed systems.
Modernisation & Lifecycle: Deep knowledge of emerging solutions and best practices for platform lifecycle management, portfolio governance, and modernisation.
Collaborative Leadership: The ability to work across boundaries鈥攕pecifically with Cloud and Data Center teams鈥攖o create a seamless, unified technology foundation.
Operational Excellence: Experience applying agile frameworks, scaled delivery models, and IT service operations, using metrics and OKRs to track value and drive continuous improvement.
People Development: Proven experience leading and developing high-performing technical teams, coaching talent, and driving organisational change across mixed sourcing models.
Strategic FinOps: Experience with budget ownership and unit cost economics within a defined domain or organisational area.
Risk & Compliance: Ability to apply security-by-design and privacy-by-design principles, take ownership of risk prevention, and manage digital risks within platform delivery.
About us
At IKEA, we think and work differently. We challenge old patterns and create new solutions, whether that鈥檚 a music-playing lamp or plant-based food that鈥檚 better for the planet. Our vision is simple: to create a better everyday life for the many people.
In Technology and Platform, we support the whole organisation by providing reliable technology and digital platforms that are easy to use and built for the future. By working closely with others across IKEA, we turn technology into real value and support ongoing transformation.
Inter IKEA Group
https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/InterIKEAGroup