Meet Your Future Team
You will join our Project Management organization based at the LKR Innovation House in Østbirk (Denmark).
The team consists of highly experienced senior project managers who drive complex product development programs across the VELUX Group. You will be the first dedicated Senior Cost Engineer in the team, setting up and shaping this new capability and working closely with colleagues across engineering, procurement, and finance. Our products are windows and related components, giving you the opportunity to work with a rich mix of materials, constructions, and manufacturing technologies.
In this role, you will act as a strategic bridge between engineering expertise and financial performance bringing transparency to the true cost drivers of our components, rigorously challenging pricing assumptions, and unlocking sustainable cost optimization opportunities. You will play a critical role in shaping both our current window portfolio and next-generation platforms by embedding cost intelligence early in the design process and driving cross-functional alignment on value creation.
As the first cost specialist in the team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping how we approach technical cost across the entire value chain—establishing methodologies, building end‑to‑end transparency, and influencing key decisions from early concept through industrialization and across the full product lifecycle.
To succeed, you combine strong financial acumen with an understanding of product design, value engineering and design to cost. More importantly, you excel at translating and communicating complex technical insights into clear, compelling cost narratives that guide strategic decision-making, foster cross-functional alignment, and drive tangible value engineering across the business to executive leadership.
More specifically your tasks will be to:
- Define, evolve, and embed Design to Cost methodologies and robust cost models from component to platform level, ensuring a consistent and transparent approach to calculating and validating technical cost in close collaboration with engineering and procurement teams.
- Analysing BOMs (Bill of Materials) to identify cost drivers and compare costs across products.
- Identifying and addressing key cost contributors based on product design and construction.
- Challenging existing cost assumptions with data and technical insight withing the full product lifecycle.
- Lead value engineering while executing the identification of design optimization opportunities that reduce cost while maintaining functionality and performance.
- Connecting material choices, manufacturing methods, and technology opportunities to cost impact.
- Supporting procurement with technical cost breakdowns and fact‑based arguments in supplier discussions.
- Spearheading and leading a strong cost‑awareness mindset within engineering teams.
- Preparing detailed cost breakdowns at component, module and system level.
- Driving and facilitate Design to Cost activities such as VA/VE (Value Analysis / Value Engineering) workshops and initiatives.
Who we are looking for
You have solid experience and advanced skills in cost strategy, design to cost modelling, should‑cost analysis, and preparing detailed cost breakdowns at component, system, and platform level.
You have a technical degree in engineering, value chain management or a related field, ideally supplemented by commercial or business education, combined with a minimum of 5 years’ experience from a strategic cost, engineering, or R&D environment, with a track record of working cross-functionally to translate technical complexity into cost insights that drive business decisions.
Furthermore, you have:
- Strong analytical capabilities to interpret BOMs, identify cost drivers, benchmark products, and challenge assumptions with data and engineering insight.
- Understanding of materials, manufacturing processes, and design choices—and their impact on cost, performance, and supply‑chain risk.
- Experience supporting procurement and finance with fact‑based cost insights, technical cost structures.
- Ability to embed a cost‑awareness mindset in engineering teams and influence decisions across the full product lifecycle.
- Strong business acumen to link cost structures to product margins, sourcing strategies, and portfolio performance.
- Solid leadership experience in communicating and influencing senior stakeholders and facilitating alignment across functions.
- Experience with “should costing models”, design to cost would be an advantage.
- Professional proficiency in English, spoken and written.
Personal Qualities
- Self‑driven and proactive, able to take ownership and move tasks forward without close guidance.
- Constructively challenging, unafraid to question assumptions and improve existing ways of working.
- Resilient and persistent, maintaining momentum even when confronted with resistance or setbacks.
- Improvement‑oriented, motivated by simplifying processes, reducing complexity, and delivering tangible results.
- Influential without authority, building strong relationships and aligning others through trust, clarity, and collaboration.
- Analytical and structured, able to break complex issues into clear, actionable insights and decisions.
- Energetic and accountable, following ideas through from concept to implementation and measurable impact.
- Curious and open‑minded, approaching problems with a willingness to explore alternatives and find better solutions.
