Summer Trainee, New Business Innovation

Founded in 1910, KONE is a global leader that provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization that add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Our mission is to improve the flow of urban life and make our world’s cities better places to live by providing innovative solutions that help make people’s journeys safe, convenient and reliable. Our operations in over 60 countries around the world has helped us achieve our position as an innovation and sustainability leader with repeated recognitions by Forbes, Corporate Knights for clean capitalism and others.  

KONE’s vision is to create the Best People Flow experience by providing ease, effectiveness and experience to our customers and users. In line with our strategy, Rise to lead, we will focus on increasing the value we create for customers with new intelligent solutions and embed sustainability even deeper across all of our operations. By closer collaboration with customers and partners, KONE will increase the speed of bringing new services and solutions to the market.

Professionals and technical experts - KONE Corporation

KONE Technology and Innovation (KTI) is where the magic happens at KONE. It's where we combine the physical world – escalators and elevators – with smart and connected digital systems. We are changing and improving the way billions of people move within buildings every day. We are on a mission to shape the future of the industry with new technologies and sustainable innovations.

Within KTI, the Innovation Unit is a cross-functional team of innovators who explore the world with curiosity and drive to bring innovations to customers of today and tomorrow. Deep user, customer and business understanding underpins our culture of experimentation. Ultimately, we deliver desirable end-to-end solutions at the intersection of people, technology, and business.

We are now looking for a

Summer Trainee, New Business Innovation

to join our Innovation team in the KONE Technology and Innovation (KTI) unit in Espoo, Finland. This role is primarily office‑based, and we expect you to work on‑site 4 days per week to support collaboration, fast learning, and hands‑on participation in innovation projects.

The trainee position is 3-4 months paid full-time work between May and September 2026, and the start date can be adjusted depending on your availability and preference.

In this role, you’ll join a multidisciplinary team and work on one or more innovation projects – ranging from early discovery to initial go-to-market and deployment of new products and solutions.

What you’ll do (examples of tasks & responsibilities)

• Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to assess opportunities and build business cases (market analysis, business cases)

• Conduct user & customer research, synthesize insights, and translate them into opportunities, value propositions and minimum viable solution scopes

• Prepare one pagers and pitch decks for stakeholder reviews and decision gates

• Support go-to-market experiments and capture learnings from pilots

• Help the team improve ways of working, knowledge sharing, and internal communication

To be successful in this role, you preferably have

• A solid foundation in strategy, business analysis and business case development, demonstrated through studies or work experience

• Familiarity with innovation methodologies (e.g., Lean Startup, Design Thinking) and an experimental, iterative way of working

• Ability to assess impact and scalability while moving fast and learning through iteration

• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a structured and hands-on approach

• Strong collaboration skills and confidence to contribute in cross-functional teams and interact with users and customers

• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills in English

• Studies toward a relevant degree in Engineering, Business, Design, or a related field. A combination of technical and business understanding is a plus

• Curiosity & self-starter attitude: hobby projects or entrepreneurial experience are a strong advantage.

We offer 

Join a global company shaping how people move in buildings and cities worldwide. Work with an experienced, multidisciplinary team and gain hands-on exposure across the full innovation journey – from early exploration to concept validation and initial go-to-market. You’ll learn from experts, grow your skills, and make a meaningful contribution to projects that matter.

Want to join the #PeopleFlow?

If you think this could be an inspiring challenge for the summer, please tell more about yourself, your availability during the summer and why you are interested in this specific role and submit your CV and application letter together with copy of transcript of studies via our Careers-site www.kone.com/jobs latest on 15th February 2026.

#Techsummer

#LI-IT

#LI-Hybrid

At KONE, we are focused on creating an innovative and collaborative working culture where we value the contribution of each individual. Employee engagement is a key focus area for us and we encourage participation and the sharing of information and ideas. Sustainability is an integral part of our culture and the daily practice. We follow ethical business practices and we seek to develop a culture of working together where co-workers trust and respect each other and good performance is recognized. In being a great place to work, we are proud to offer a range of experiences and opportunities that will help you to achieve your career and personal goals and enable you to live a healthy and balanced life.

Read more on www.kone.com/careers