Technical Leader - Polymer and Biobased Materials Applications

Welcome to Volvo Cars

We are now strengthening our technical specialist team by adding a Technical Leader position within Vehicle Tophat. This position is a senior role within Volvo Cars and is recognized as Technical Leader for Sustainable Polymer and biomaterial applications and you will be a part of our Polymer Experts team.


What’s in it for you?
Vehicle Tophat needs a strong technical leadership within the area Polymer and Biobased Materials Applications to be able to establish a holistic view and strategy to meet our 2040 targets within climate action and circular economy from a sustainable material application point of view. The sustainable materials, which includes recycled and bio-based plastics, also enable the next phase towards the targets for weight and styling in the future. Vehicle Tophat content is almost 60% of the polymer material in the car. A technical leader within this area, combining the best practice for both materials and their applications, is a key enabler to reach future demand and goals for Volvo Cars taking circular business (profit), raw material availability and increasing regulatory pressure in consideration.

What you will do
You will take the ownership of the Vehicle Tophat strategy to meet Volvo Cars 2040 targets within climate action and circular economy from a sustainable material application point of view. We need to take further steps to continue developing this competence area by adding experiences from suppliers, external research, academia, collaboration and tutoring of PhD. The technical leader will lead and secure external financed research projects and is a go-to-person in polymer application and its processes. The strengthened leadership in this area will contribute to excellent communication when it comes to external networks, authorities and working as management support to have a clear message to media.

Main responsibilities
The specialist area covers all sustainable polymer materials and their applications relevant for Vehicle Tophat. The main focus will be on exploring sustainable polymers and find the right application for them, transfer knowledge, and have strong interaction within the sustainable polymer implementation.

•    Lead team/fora of expertise within global VCC for the areas of sustainable polymer materials and their applications, including technical experts, designer,  strategy leaders and knowledge-based engineers.
•    Responsible for writing long term strategies for the combination of sustainable polymer materials.
•    Responsible to find and evaluate latest development of materials and processes on the market.
•    Address and lead the resolution of key technical issues for the area within R&D.
•    Address and lead writing and maintaining of relevant STD- and guideline documents
•    Responsible for initiating pre-development activities and supporting implementation in pre-programs (pre & post PS).
•    Be a technical mentor in the expertise area and responsible for education programs.
•    Represent the company at internal and external technical exchange related to the technical area.
•    Provide technical support and expertise outside the home organization.
•    Develop and maintain external relations with suppliers, universities, through conferences, meetings, supervision of doctorate programs, thesis works etc.
•    Participate and in some cases run national or international research projects.

Experience & Education
•    Experience from working in automotive business is a prerequisite to understand the future challenges.
•    University degree, preferably PhD degree within relevant functional area.
•    High experience in sustainable plastics and renewable materials and their applications.
•    Leadership experience.
•    Fluent in written and spoken English.
•    Evidence of recognition (deliveries, nominations & go-to-person) and with a pro-active attitude.
•    A demonstrated capability and willingness to teach, coach and be a mentor.

We would like for you to show a minimum + 10 years of experience in the functional area, from both a process and product point of view and currently acting as technical expert within relevant area and with extensive knowledge in sustainable polymer materials application. For this position, which is a senior one - we look for someone with proven leadership & team leading skills. High level of communication skills and teamwork ability, e.g. invited as speaker, media is fundamental for meeting the requirements for this position. You will need to present comprehensive experience from research (requirement/methods, concept development, embedded systems, engineering, analysis, verification & validation methods and strategies), contact with authorities and industry.
We hope that our position has caught your interest and we are looking forward to your application!

Contact
For questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact recruiting manager Britt-Marie Nisbet at britt-marie.nisbet@volvocars.com or  Senior Recruiter Jacob Hjalmarson at jacob.hjalmarson@volvocars.com. Kindly register your application as soon as possible, but not later than 2023-01-29. Please notice application through e-mail is not accepted.