Director Design for Manufacturing & Localization

Do you want to play a key role in shaping how future products are designed—with a focus on manufacturing efficiency, localization, and global competitiveness? We are now looking for a strategic and driven leader to take ownership of our Design for Manufacturing and localization agenda. About the role As Director, Design for Manufacturing & Localization, you will play a critical role in ensuring that our products are optimized for efficient, scalable, and cost-effective manufacturing—while also driving localization initiatives across regions. You will act as a key link between engineering, product management, operations, supply chain, and transformation teams, strengthening both global coordination and regional adaptability. Key responsibilities In this role, you will lead and continuously develop the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) strategy, ensuring that manufacturability is fully embedded across product development and change processes. You will drive localization initiatives aimed at increasing flexibility, resilience, and cost competitiveness across regions, while overseeing key industrialization efforts, including product transfers and launches. A central part of your responsibility will be to identify and implement opportunities to reduce cost, complexity, and lead times, as well as to drive standardization and modularization to enhance scalability and efficiency. You will lead and develop a cross-functional team of approximately 14 direct reports and foster strong collaboration across global and local teams. Furthermore, you will play a key role in monitoring and improving KPIs about new products, related to quality, cost, delivery, and execution, while actively contributing to broader transformation and operational excellence initiatives across the organization. Your profile You are an experienced and impactful leader with a strong track record of building, leading, and developing teams. You have a strong capability to lead change and transformation initiatives, with proven ability to influence stakeholders and manage ambiguity and complexity in an international context. You hold a relevant academic degree and have solid experience from a global industrial or manufacturing environment within product lifecycle management, production excellence, or similar areas. In addition, significant leadership experience in manufacturing, industrialization, engineering operations, or supply chain localization is considered a strong advantage, as is a proven track record in design for manufacturability, cost optimization, and production readiness. Experience working across multiple regions, plants, or product platforms. Your analytical mindset, structured approach, and clear communication style enable you to collaborate effectively across functions and levels, and you communicate fluently in both Swedish and English. Information For any questions, you are welcome to contact the responsible recruiter, Daniel Långberg, at daniel.langberg@xylem.com. Selection and interviews will be conducted on an ongoing basis, so we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible. The Unionen representative are Anna Skansfors for Unionen; for Sveriges Ingenjörer/Akademikerna, Jenny Johansson; for IF Metall, Sofie Malmborg; and for Ledarna, Martin Johansson, +46 471 24 70 00.