Chief Strategic Futurist - Foresight and Innovation in Grundfos FutureLab

Join Grundfos FutureLab, where we blend business innovation with global sustainability, creating impact that resonates for generations. As our Chief Strategic Futurist, you'll pioneer radical solutions, shaping Grundfos' future and the world's sustainability agenda. Embrace an intrapreneurial spirit, driving forward-thinking strategy and unleashing creative freedom. If you're ready to make waves, seize the opportunity to redefine the future with us! 

Open mindset - bridging relationships - visionary - scenario crafting - conceptualizing 

If this sounds like you, then grab the opportunity as Chief Strategic Futurist, where you will build strong scenarios for Grundfos, by creating the strategic link from FutureLab to the rest of Grundfos and line of sight from status quo and existing roadmaps to the future.  Furthermore, you will uphold the intrapreneurial ways of working and balancing compliance towards our operating model while unleashing creative freedom to explore opportunities in the various teams. 

 ”We passionately look for ‘the next big things’ for Grundfos. Opportunities with significant potential to impact our business, the sustainability agenda, and consequently the world, for generations to come.” explains Lars Spicker Olesen, Head of FutureLab, Grundfos. 
 

Welcome to Grundfos FutureLab 

Grundfos FutureLab is a radical innovation unit looking for new revolutionary solutions where business and sustainability are two sides of the same coin. The level of innovation is high, and before we are ready to scale a potential business opportunity in Grundfos, we need to mature it. Together with colleagues across group functions, business divisions, and external partners where needed, we explore, conceptualize, incubate, and prove viability in the market. Grundfos FutureLab is based at our HQ in Denmark, where this role also will be based.   

What is the job about?  

As our new Chief Strategic Futurist, your primary responsibility will be to deliver and maintain impactful scenarios and secure organizational support to develop and deploy these into a portfolio of impactful opportunities for Grundfos.  

More specifically:  

Strategy and Scenarios  

• Lead the development and implementation of unit strategic direction. 

• Act as the interface to Group functions like, Strategy, Sustainability, and M&A, as well as to Divisional strategies and the Technology Strategy in Group Technology & Innovation (GT&I), which Grundfos FutureLab is part of. 

• Responsible for scenario building through strategizing and supporting ideation, and conceptualization of individual opportunities. 
   

Intrapreneurial ways of working  

• Developing & maintaining intrapreneurial ways of working with high uncertainty in evolutionary- and radical innovation. 

• Drive the annual wheel in sync with Divisions, GT&I, and other group functions. 

• Link to the Idea to Market organization. 
   

Structure and communication  

• Supporting Head of FutureLab on budgeting, planning, and project management; including portfolio overviews on a Group level. 

• Drive the Grundfos FutureLab annual report. 

• Support preparation of deliverables for Innovation Forum, Group Management, Technology Committee, and other stakeholders. 

Your background

We are looking for a performance driven person with a strategic “thinking outside the box” mindset, who thrives in a global organization with different cultures. You must be an excellent relationship builder who understands how a matrix organization works, and who can navigate and operate in a role bridging, operation, and strategy. You have a strong ability to lead by example, and you have sufficient knowledge to become a trusted sounding board for your stakeholders across the organization. Furthermore, you have a strong end-to-end business acumen and the ability to quickly adapt to new concepts and methodologies.  

We imagine that you might:  
 

• Have a master’s degree in business, management, finance, engineering or similar. 

• Have at least 7 years of experience. 

• Have a management consulting background in top-tier consultancy or internal equivalent where intrapreneurial, explorative, and innovation with high degrees of uncertainty was the primary focus. 

• Have people management experience – direct or indirect. 

• Have experience in challenging and influencing with proven results, supporting key initiatives in a large international matrix organization. 

• Have experience leading and developing scenarios, future studies, and key strategies within a large business environment. 

• Have extensive experience operating and leading complex processes within Strategy (structure, budgeting, planning). 

• Have a strong background executing complex or specialized projects and activities in Strategy Development. 

• Have strong knowledge of best practices in relevant systems particularly in the Strategy Development area and within radical/exploratory customer focused innovation. 
   

What’s in it for you?  

Whether it’s developing leadership skills or advancing your expertise even further, we’ll support you with continuous learning and development opportunities, to help discuss and steer your long-term Grundfos career path. You’ll be welcomed from day one into an inclusive, trusting environment guided by six core values. 

In addition, your day-to-day benefits include: 

• We encourage you to be at the offices, where you can engage, learn, and have fun with colleagues. If you’ll be working from your home office, we’ll make sure you are well equipped with a good workstation. 

• On top of it, flexible working hours and up to 3 days’ additional paid leave for volunteering of your choice. 

• Annual bonuses, health insurance, parental support, internal well-being consultants and programmes. 

• Access to the modern Grundfos Academy to pursue further both personal and professional development. 

• Diverse, inclusive environment with employee-led forums offering colleagues a safe place to connect and share openly. 

Do you want to learn more?  

If you have questions or would like to know more about this position, please contact Recruiter Nanna Frederiksen on nfrederiksen@grundfos.com or Head of FutureLab, Lars Spicker Olesen on spicker@grundfos.com 

If this job sounds appealing, please send your resume by clicking “Apply”.  

To dig deeper into the Grundfos universe, follow us on LinkedIn or Youtube, and to get to know some of your future colleagues and why they love working at Grundfos, check out Meet our people 

We look forward to hearing from you.