At JBT Marel, what we do matters, we know that the contribution of our employees leads to the success of our business.
Our purpose is to transform the future of food; this guides our vision of being the global leader in food and beverage technology, by harnessing the full power of JBT Marel to partner with our customers and pioneer sustainable innovation.
Our values show who we are at our best. As we Create with Collaboration, Serve with Integrity, Grow with Excellence, and Advance with Innovation.
You will report to the Innovation Excellence Director and work closely with central innovation teams, divisions, category management, product owners, engineering communities, and Supply Chain.
Opportunity
At JBT Marel, we are seeking a visionary Design Standards Lead to define and drive our global design standards strategy across the organization. This role is responsible for establishing the governance, frameworks, and collaborative ways of working that transform design standards from technical requirements into strategic business enablers. By creating alignment across products, platforms, and solutions, the Design Standards Lead will help reduce complexity, improve scalability, enhance the customer experience, and strengthen JBT Marel's position as a leading full-line solutions provider.
Success in this role requires building strong cross-functional partnerships and leading a global community of stakeholders across Innovation, Product Management, Supply Chain, Service, Software, Engineering, and other key functions. The scope spans hardware, mechanical and electrical design, automation, software platforms, human-machine interfaces, user experience, and customer-facing product solutions. The Design Standards Lead will drive consistency where it delivers value while ensuring strategic differentiation remains a competitive advantage where appropriate.
Responsibilities:
- Build and govern the direction for category management, where technical direction, preferred solutions and design boundaries are set in collaboration with Innovation and Supply Chain. Alignment should be a conscious choice, not a default assumption.
- Act as a key collaborator across divisions to align design standards with broader innovation roadmaps, platform strategies, modularization principles and integrated solution offerings.
- Champion design clarity as a strategic enabler by establishing transparent guidelines that help teams understand when to align for a cohesive cross-portfolio experience, and when differentiation serves the customer or product better.
Main tasks
- Own, develop and maintain the global design standards framework for JBT Marel.
- Define and facilitate the governance model for design standards, including roles, responsibilities, decision rights, review cadence, ownership and approval processes.
- Drive alignment across divisions on common design principles, platforms, modules, interfaces and technical direction.
- Establish clear guidelines for when standardization is required, when harmonization is beneficial and when differentiation is justified.
- Collaborate closely with Innovation and Supply Chain to set direction and boundaries for category management, preferred components and platform principles.
- Align design standards with product roadmaps, innovation priorities, modularization strategies and full-line solution development.
- Facilitate cross-functional design standard forums, key user groups, expert communities and regular alignment meetings throughout the year.
- Build and strengthen a global design standards community across Innovation and supply chain.
- Ensure relevant standards cover hardware, electrical architecture, automation, software platforms, user interfaces, hygienic design, safety, serviceability, manufacturability, sustainability, and compliance.
- Identify areas where lack of standardization creates unnecessary cost, risk, complexity, inefficiency or inconsistent customer experience.
- Support the development of common design libraries, templates, guidelines and decision tools.
- Create a clear process for maintaining, updating, communicating and retiring design standards.
- Support integration between legacy JBT and legacy Marel ways of working by identifying best practices and scaling them where relevant.
- Provide recommendations to leadership on design standard priorities, risks, gaps and opportunities.
- Track progress of design standards initiatives and secure momentum across functions and divisions.
Skills and Abilities
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to connect technical standards to business value.
- Excellent communication, facilitation and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to influence across functions, divisions and professional disciplines without relying only on formal authority.
- Strong understanding of product development, engineering processes, platform thinking, modularization and portfolio complexity.
- Ability to balance standardization and flexibility pragmatically.
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Structured, persistent and capable of driving progress in a global matrix organization.
- Comfortable working with both technical detail and executive-level direction.
- Strong sense of customer value, usability, operational impact and lifecycle thinking.
- Collaborative mindset with the ability to create trust, shared ownership and an active community around design standards.
Education, Knowledge and Experience
- A relevant university degree, preferably at Master's level, within engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, product development, innovation management or a related field.
- Minimum five years of experience in product development, engineering, design standards, platform development, product architecture, modularization, category management or a related technical or strategic role.
- Experience from equipment manufacturing, food processing machinery, industrial automation or another complex B2B manufacturing environment is an advantage.
- Experience working across hardware, electrical, automation, software or user interface domains is an advantage.
- Strong understanding of how design standards influence product complexity, supply chain efficiency, serviceability, compliance, manufacturability and customer experience.
- Experience working in a global, multi-site and multi-cultural organization.
- Proven ability to partner effectively with a wide variety of stakeholder groups in a corporate context.
- Knowledge of compliance, safety, hygienic design, sustainability or regulatory requirements in machinery design is an advantage.
- Excellent English skills, both written and verbal.
Why join JBT Marel?
Travel & Location
- This position is fully onsite at one of our Innovation Center Locations (DE - Bad Iburg, GB – Adlington, GB – Livingston, IT – Parma, NL - Boxmeer – Handelstraat, SE – Helsingborg, US – Kingston, NY, US - Redmond, WA, US – Richmond, VA, US - Sandusky, OH and US – Lakeland, FL), and we ask that you travel approximately 25% of the time.
We are committed to our employees and will provide you with development and opportunities to allow you to be the best version of yourself at work, at home, and in your community.
We foster a genuine inclusive team culture enjoying collaborative working across our global teams to deliver world-class projects.
We encourage development - ensuring new experiences and challenges at JBT Marel to feed your growth!
Benefits: JBT Marel offers benefits on day 1 of your employment. Including: Medical, Dental, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability, family leave, vision coverage, and a matched 401(k) plan.
Commitment to Diversity: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging is a fundamental value to JBT Marel and critical to our future success. A thoughtful, focused, and sustained effort to work towards our DEIB goals is not just a principled choice, but also a business imperative.
Use of Technology in Our Hiring Process
JBT Marel uses technology-assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to support the review of applications.
These tools help our recruiting teams identify skills and experience relevant to the role based on job-related criteria.
All applications are reviewed by people, and AI is not used to make hiring decisions independently. We are committed to fair, consistent and inclusive hiring practices globally.
Equal Opportunity Employment:
JBT Marel provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and qualified applicants for employment. We will not tolerate any form of discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. At JBT Marel, we apply this policy to all our employment practices, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, benefits, and training. We make hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit and business needs at the time. JBT Marel will reasonably accommodate applicants who need adjustments to participate in the application or interview process. If you require assistance or accommodation during the application process, please contact JBT Marel at 844-286-4524.
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