SSAB - Business Innovation Manager

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

• Location: Helsinki, Raahe, Hämeenlinna, Borlänge or Luleå. Oulu is also an option through the Raahe location.

• 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

• Permanent, full-time employment

• 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.

Did we spark your interest?

We would love to hear from you! Please submit your application via the link by October 25th, 2026. We will be looking to start the interviews already during the application period.

This is a permanent position where you will be employed by SSAB. The recruitment process is carried out in cooperation with Avila. For more information on the position, please contact Veronika Helenius, [email protected].

SSAB is a global leader in high-strength steels and related services, headquartered in Stockholm. Its vision is a stronger, lighter and more sustainable world. The group has approximately 14,600 employees in over 50 countries, produces steel in Sweden, Finland and the United States, and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq Helsinki.

Becoming part of the SSAB family means joining a journey. A journey that we believe is essential for the sustainability of this planet. Steel has been one of the most important materials for developing our society and it will continue to be so. In the roofs over our heads, in the bridges connecting our cities and in the cars of tomorrow. At SSAB we are proud of our history and leadership in high-strength steel. But we are also aware that the production of steel is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. That has to change. That is why we have developed the world’s first fossil free steel production and have committed to becoming largely fossil-free by around 2030. As part of SSAB you will be instrumental in realizing this goal and push for the green transformation of the whole steel industry.