We are Ingka Investments, one of the three core businesses of Ingka Group, next to IKEA Retail and Ingka Centers. We invest to generate lasting financial returns, and to make a positive impact on our retail business and sustainability goals. With an investment scope stretching from start-ups to solar parks, and from financial assets to forests, our roles range from investment managers to digital specialists, and from business navigators to forest rangers. What connects us is the IKEA vision, our passion for entrepreneurship and our love for our planet.
The forestland portfolio has a focus on responsible forestland ownership that preserves and increases the forest quality for generations to come. It includes afforestation projects to support the absorption of global CO2 emissions. In total Forestland Portfolio manages an investment worth of ~800 Million (250K Hectors) and it currently covers five countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and the US. The digital landscape, which supports the forestry processes, is partly outdated, and should be replaced. Currently, we have 2 different management models that we have adopted, manage our forestlands ourselves (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Romania) and to outsource the management to third parties (US, New Zealand)
There are IT solutions that currently support the forelands that we manage and there are different flavors of IT solutions in each country. One of the important solutions that we rely on now is the GIS solution which holds the location, stands and other infrastructure details of our forestland.
In Romania we have an ERP solution (Vector) supporting the forestry operations and finance and an ArcGIS solution for GIS Part. In Latvia we have FOREMS which holds GIS and Operations where the finance is handled by HANSA. In Estonia we have FIS which again holds the GIS information and Operations, whereas the finance is handled by ERP HANSA. In Lithuania, all forestry stand information, operations management, GIS information in the ArcGIS solution.
We have decided to go with a best of the breed solution for GIS, ERP and forest operations management solutions to support the business considering all the future requirements. As part of that, we have decided to have Dynamics 365 as our Finance and Operations system. Currently, the implementation for BALTICS is in progress. We are in the process of finalizing the forest management solution to replace the ageing FIS & FOREMS. As per the current strategy we have decided to use ArcGIS to hold a portfolio view of all our properties for a reporting perspective. The portfolio managers and compliance managers should be able to see all relevant data/reports from this ArcGIS solution to improve operations and adhere to the compliance requirements.
We are looking for passionate leaders who can lead us through the journey by delivering the projects. The leader will have a say in directing, implementing, and guiding the forestland IT strategy. The goal is to provide the best solution to the business to optimize operational efficiency and to provide the best business analytics to support business decisions.
Responsibilities:
- Responsible for planning, managing and delivery of assigned digital projects, including time, cost, scope and quality, with some support from senior colleagues
- Deliver projects. Manage the vendors delivery with a close check on budget and quality.
- Identify, mitigate, monitor, and control risks for all the projects
- Use the group procurement team and group rule to procure IT services, platform, and software licenses
- Report project progress to Forestland Portfolio Digitalization Manager and other stakeholders
- Drive continuous improvement of project quality and performance in assigned projects
- Work with the country managers, operations managers to identify the IT solutions that are needed to improve efficiency and accuracy
- Work in compliance with all aspects of how we work with projects (quality assurance process, plan, process, execution, steering and follow up)
- Contribute to the Forestland Digital Strategy development by understanding the current landscape and future needs
- Work as a team to define IT projects that are can be used across the portfolio.
- Organizes clear trainings, documentation and processes to ensure developed GIS solutions can be effortlessly utilized to achieve promised business and operations targets
Skills/Qualifications
To be successful in this role, we believe:
• You are a strong leader able to inspire and mobilize people towards clearly set objectives.
• You have more than 5 years of software project delivery experience
• You are passionate about IT solution delivery based on GIS and Microsoft dynamics and office 365 based solutions
• You have extensive GIS knowledge and GIS solution delivery experience
• You have ability to translate business needs into innovative platform solutions
• You have extensive experience with agile development methodologies.
• Having Microsoft dynamics and office 365 based solution delivery experience is desirable.
• You have a leaning mentality and have IT technical certifications
• Having any of the following certifications in Project Management is a plus (PRINCE 2, PMP, ITIL)
• Having forestry business Experience, is desirable.
Please send us your resume and a short motivation letter by July 15th, 2022 at cristina.igescu@ingka.com and larisa.dragomir1@ingka.com
Please note that only suitable candidates will be contacted