Vattenfall is a European energy company with approximately 21 000 employees. For more than 100 years we have electrified industries, supplied energy to people’s homes and modernized our way of living through innovation and cooperation. We now want to enable the fossil freedom that drives society forward. To be able to reach this ambitious goal we are looking for talented individuals who, in addition to their passion for their own role, also have strong team spirit and want to contribute to supporting a meaningful corporate mission. 

The Staff Function Research & Development (R&D) counts a team of ca 150 people working to accelerate the way to fossil freedom through the development of competitive solutions. From its central position at group level, R&D supports different business units in Vattenfall with deployment of new solutions in the field, while leveraging the synergies across the various businesses.

To cope with higher demands for innovation and the increased complexity of the future energy system, we have revised our organizational setup in R&D to simplify the structure, while building further on our strong competence base. The revised structure comprises two large execution departments of about 70 employees each, responsible for execution of the R&D activities in the respective areas. A third, smaller, department focusing on Strategy and Portfolio Management is responsible for the long-term planning of R&D activities in line with the business strategies. 

We are now looking for Director of Energy Systems and Digitalisation

Reporting directly to the Head of R&D, you will be responsible for Vattenfall’s R&D department “Energy Systems and Digitalisation”, which employs ca 65-70 people of different nationalities, based mainly in Vattenfall’s headquarters in Solna. The department focuses on development of solutions for the future energy system with high degree of digitalization, and covers a broad spectrum of areas and competences. The department is organized in four sections on Energy Systems and Processes, Power Technology, Digital Energy Solutions, and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Applications areas such as battery storage, e-mobility, smart grids, heating systems, and hydrogen are included. In this role, you will be part of the R&D management team.

Main tasks and responsibilities

In this position, you are overall responsible for Vattenfall’s R&D department on Energy Systems and Digitalisation, including planning activities, staffing agile teams, and resourcing projects to deliver high-quality results that fulfill the requests from the R&D portfolios and other internal business stakeholders within Vattenfall’s business areas. You will also be overall responsible for health and safety, work environment, and quality of deliveries from the department. Together with your management team, you will work closely with the R&D Portfolios and relevant Business Areas in Vattenfall to ensure the efficient delivery of digitalised energy and power solutions, maximizing the value for Vattenfall. Finally, you are responsible for the long-term development of competence, digital tools and way of working, so that they are up to date and in line with Vattenfall’s strategic needs.

We are looking for:

You are an experienced manager, with 5-10 years of managerial experience in complex organisations. You have proven to be an excellent leader, naturally applying the Vattenfall leadership principles. You are expected to have a very strong customer orientation, high level stakeholder management skills and ability to improve operational efficiency and drive change.

Furthermore you have all or most of the following experiences and qualities:

• Experience in the energy sector in Sweden or other European country, preferably in R&D, technology management or innovation.
• Successful track record in leading through other managers. Experience of management in international environment is highly valued.
• Successful experience in managing change in a complex environment, and understanding of different cultures.
• Understanding of and experience with managing R&D projects and working with different R&D execution models, eg agile;
• Broad experience in one or more of the department’s technologies areas: energy systems, electrical engineering, power technology, digitalization, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Experience of own research (e.g. Ph.D. or post-doc) is highly valued.
• Strong management, communication, problem solving and collaboration skills ensuring effective collaboration with business leaders/stakeholders.
• Ability to build and maintain trustful working relationships to peers, customers and staff.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, to take initiative and to follow through
• Perfect command of both Swedish and English languages. Additional language skills are valuable, particularly in Vattenfall’s key countries (DE, NL, DK). 

At Vattenfall we are convinced that diversity contributes to build a more profitable and attractive company and we strive to be a good role model regarding diversity. Vattenfall works actively for all employees to have the same opportunities and rights regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, transgender identity or expression, religion or other belief, disability or sexual orientation.

Location Solna, Sweden.

We welcome your application in English, latest 10 December 2025.

Selections and Interviews may be held continuously throughout the application period, so please do not wait until the last day before sending in your application.

A management assessment is a part of the recruitment process. By applying, you agree to use potentially existing assessment reports and talent mmanagement data during the selection process.

For more information about the position you are welcome to contact Ambra Sannino, [email protected]. For more information about the recruitment process please contact Recruiter Peter Blixter, +46 722 37 32 02.

Trade Union representatives: Akademikerna – Shahriar Badiei, Ledarna – Christer Gustafsson, SEKO – Juha Siipilehto, Unionen – Anders Bohlin. You can reach them via 08-739 50 00.

Working at Vattenfall means working with critical societal infrastructure. Therefore, many of our positions are security classified, and you may be assigned a wartime placement.
If this position is security classified, a security clearance will be carried out before employment, in accordance with the Security Protection Act. Any potential wartime placement is based on the employment contract and the Swedish Total Defence Service Act.

We look forward to receiving your application!