Do you want to lead a new cross-functional team that drives growth, business development and settlement?

Here you get a rare opportunity to be involved from the start. Varde Municipality has just gathered business development, settlement, tourism, development of rural areas/local communities and international recruitment in the new cross-cutting team: Business and Growth.

For the newly established leadership role we are looking for you who are passionate about

• Shaping how the municipality tackles the most important development tasks in the coming years
• Implementing strategic, concrete and meaningful actions
• Making a noticeable difference in both start-up, operation and ongoing development

You will be the driving force in the mission to create better coherence between business, the labor market and settlement with a focus on all the people who are excited by the west Jutland – whether it is with a view to investing, living, working, or being a guest here.

Hear more about the position in this video (opens in a new tab)

Relational leader who sets strategic direction and coordinates across

Your educational background means less to us than the experiences, ideas, and competencies you will bring into play to succeed in the role. The most important thing is that you are keen to take responsibility for a task where no one has all the answers yet, and where you have the opportunity to set the direction together with others.

We imagine that you have experience in driving progress in complex tasks with many actors. You work strategically and can translate analyses and data into concrete actions, while at the same time you as a person are motivated to build relationships and are skilled at reading the people you meet. You are diplomatic by nature and focus on common goals when you build networks and partnerships. You have the ability to think creatively, but also know when new solutions should be developed, and when the right thing is to build on what already works.

We also hope that you have

• Political and organizational acumen

You understand the political framework, master political servicing and can navigate wisely in an organization with many considerations and different core tasks.

• Coordinating and co-creating strength

You work with relational coordination and can connect projects, actions and people across and create coherence.

• Trust-based people leadership

You value a good working environment and can lead strong professional staff by setting direction, delegating and avoiding micromanagement.

• Communicative impact

You are a skilled communicator who thrives in a visible role as an ambassador and can convey the overall direction and create follower-ship both internally and externally.

Your first and perhaps biggest task is to get the new team off to a good start. You will lead competent professionals who represent very different areas. In the startup phase it is a big advantage if you can draw on your experience and interest in personnel leadership, and it is ideal if you have previously had success in establishing new teams or forms of collaboration.

Strategic objectives and concrete actions

Varde Municipality is in the middle of a development where especially the development of the defense, Grøn Tre Part, food, the tourism area and large investments in green sector coupling projects create new opportunities for growth, jobs and settlement.

To seize these opportunities as best as possible, it will be a central task to translate our business service analysis and the municipality's new growth strategy into actions. Among other things, our companies and partners should be offered a one-stop-shop.

You will collaborate across the entire municipality – and especially with the business area, early childhood services, schools, culture and leisure. Externally, some of the primary actors include ProVarde, Destination Vesterhavet, Forvaret, Workindenmark, work-live-stay and local associations and businesses.

You will have close interaction with Varde Municipality's two cross-cutting task forces “Land and City”, which shall ensure that citizens and the business community in the respective towns and local areas become an active part of developing their local communities, and the cross-cutting effort for the authority work in connection with large construction projects, Growth and Energy Projects. You can read more in the budget agreement 2027-2030.

All the practical

You will be employed with direct reporting to the Director of Business, Labor Market and Culture. In Business and Growth there are currently seven employees.

The position is full-time, and employment is in accordance with the applicable collective agreement. Your workplace will be at Varde Town Hall.

If you have questions, you are very welcome to contact the Director of Business, Labor Market and Culture, Anders Stryhn. Send him a text message at 60 71 72 14, and he will call you back.

The application deadline is 18 October 2026, and we expect to hold interviews on 29 October and 9 November 2026. Between interviews we may conduct a personality profile.

We hope that you can start in early January 2027.

Department: Business and Growth

Application deadline: 18 October 2026

Location: Varde Town Hall / Bytoften 2, 6800 Varde, Denmark