Business Innovation Manager

SSAB; Raahen seutukunta; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid model

International team

Job summary

SSAB seeks an experienced Business Innovation Manager to shape SSAB Europe’s growth portfolio by translating market, technology, customer and regulatory trends into strategic platforms.

You will own opportunity maturation across the portfolio, define techno-commercial business cases and provide clear prioritization guidance to management. The role is a hybrid position based in the Nordic region with travel to sites.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Mechanical, Metallurgical, Materials Engineering or related field.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant professional experience in steel, metals, industrial manufacturing or B2B.
• Fluent in English (written and spoken).
• Strong techno-commercial capability connecting material, product, process and market needs.
• Experience in business development, segment or application development, product management, or strategy.

Responsibilities

• Define and manage SSAB Europe’s growth portfolio across short-, medium- and long-term horizons.
• Identify and shape growth opportunities by market foresight, customer needs, regulation and technology.
• Lead techno-commercial business cases assessing market attractiveness and financial value.
• Define customer problems and value propositions with Sales, Product Lines and R&D.
• Own the Business Innovation portfolio and gate-based maturation.
• Coordinate with Sales, Product Lines and others to ensure alignment and momentum.
• Be part of the commercial transformation steering group.
• Support Market intelligence projects and SSAB Zero initiatives.

Skills

Techno-commercial capability

Business development experience

Strategic thinking

Communication and presentation skills

Stakeholder management

Travel willingness

Education

Master’s degree in engineering

Job description

SSAB is looking for an experienced Business Innovation Manager to join the Business Innovation, Intelligence & Sustainability team. The role will shape SSAB Europe’s future non-automotive growth portfolio by translating market, technology, customer, regulatory and transformation developments into prioritized strategic growth platforms

Basic information

• Working model: Flexible hybrid model.
• Travel: Approximately 20 days per year, mainly to SSAB sites in Finland and Sweden.
• Reports to: Head of Business Innovation, Market Intelligence and Sustainability.
• Preferred start date: As soon as possible.

About the position

The Business Innovation Manager owns the strategic development and validation of new growth opportunities in different segments. In this role you will identify where SSAB Europe should build future business, define strategic growth opportunities, develop techno-commercial business cases and provide clear recommendations on which opportunities should be prioritized, further validated. The role connects present opportunities with the evolving capabilities across SSAB’s Nordic transformation and compares opportunities across Product Lines to support management decisions. You will also provide insights and actionable recommendations based on steel market intelligence to support decision making.

Main responsibilities

• Define and manage SSAB Europe’s growth portfolio in different segments across short-, medium- and long-term horizons, ensuring a balanced pipeline of opportunities linked to Nordic mill transformation, future capability development and Product line priorities.
• Identify, assess and shape attractive growth opportunities across segments, applications, solutions, services, partnerships and business-model options by combining market foresight, customer needs, regulation, sustainability, technology developments, competitor moves and SSAB’s future capabilities.
• Lead techno-commercial business cases covering strategic fit, market attractiveness, SSAB’s right to win, customer value, technical feasibility, financial value, capability requirements, scenarios, risks and key assumptions.
• Define customer problems, differentiated value propositions, solution concepts, validation plans and success criteria together with Sales, Product Lines, Technical Development, R&D, production, sustainability and other specialists.
• Own the Business Innovation portfolio, opportunity maturation through the Business Innovation gates, including validation criteria, evidence requirements, decision points and recommendations on whether opportunities should be prioritized, further validated, redirected or stopped.
• Coordinate and communicate opportunity development work with Sales, Product Lines, Technical Development and other stakeholders to ensure alignment, ownership and momentum across the organization.
• Be part of the commercial transformation steering group to own the future growth opportunity
• Support the team, when needed with Market intelligence projects and Business development of SSAB Zero

About you

• Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant professional experience in steel, metals, industrial manufacturing or a comparable B2B environment.
• Strong techno-commercial capability and ability to connect material, product, process and application knowledge with market attractiveness, customer value, cost, profitability and business potential.
• Experience in business development, segment or application development, product management, technical sales, strategy.
• Ability to see the big picture while maintaining attention to technical and commercial detail.
• Strong strategic, analytical and structured problem-solving skills, including foresight, market assessment, competitive analysis, scenarios and business cases.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with ability to explain complex technical and commercial topics clearly to management, specialists, Sales and external stakeholders.
• Excellent cooperation and stakeholder-management skills. You have a structured and organized way of working.
• Proactive, agile, open-minded and decisive, with confidence to challenge assumptions, prioritize opportunities and close decisions.
• Fluent written and spoken English.
• Willingness to travel as required.

What SSAB offers you

The role offers an opportunity to help build the innovation pipeline for SSAB’s new mill and assets and influence which segments and applications the business enters, with substantial autonomy and support from the hiring manager.

You will join a close-knit, motivated and international team based in the Nordic region. The team’s culture is built on trust, openness, mutual respect and support, with a strong emphasis on well-being. Team members have a high degree of autonomy and are encouraged to take ownership of their responsibilities while collaborating on diverse projects. The team is agile, open-minded and results-driven, continuously seeking to improve—and making time to have fun along the way.