Principal Innovation Scientist

Overview

In this role you will drive wellness innovation across the operating unit to support Europe’s growth goals. You will partner with commercial, R&D, regulatory and medical teams to maintain a consumer-relevant pipeline aligned with Haleon’s priorities. You will translate consumer insights into tangible product and claim developments while navigating a highly regulated environment. You will lead scientific and technical work to deliver compliant, high-quality innovations and work with suppliers to accelerate speed to market. This is an opportunity to shape the future of Haleon’s wellness portfolio within a collaborative, cross-functional setting.

Responsibilities

• Apply strong technical knowledge (formulation and process) to deliver the development pipeline
• Understand product development requirements and regulatory constraints and upskill the team as needed
• Continuously refresh technical knowledge through external surveillance and training
• Demonstrate people agility and collaborate across cross-functional, multi-geography teams
• Manage external supplier relationships to inform innovation strategy and execution
• Deliver qualified innovation projects with cross-functional teams and transition them to commercialization
• Provide technical support for broader wellness initiatives across the OU
• Keep stakeholders informed on costs, risks, and likelihood of success for governance decisions
• Champion consumer input in opportunity identification and ensure consumer understanding informs prototype development
• Lead data-driven evaluations and due diligence on external opportunities

Key requirements

• Bachelor in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Nutrition or related scientific discipline
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to frame problems with data
• Strong technical understanding of delivering wellness innovations and internal expectations
• History of successful formulation/product development to launch
• Experience partnering with Regulatory, Product Development, Packaging, Consumer Understanding, Medical Affairs, Supply Chain and Clinical Development
• Clear written and oral communication with internal and external stakeholders
• Experience in consumer-focused global healthcare products/brand management
• Experience with procurement and evaluating external opportunities including due diligence
• Maintains external networks and represents the organization on innovation topics
• Strong collaboration skills to lead cross-functional teams in a matrixed organization
• Proven ability to solve complex technical and operational problems
• Demonstrated initiative and ability to work independently and multi-task

• collaboration across cross-functional teams
• communication skills (oral and written)
• problem-solving and analytical thinking
• formulation and process expertise
• regulatory and quality/CMC understanding
• data-driven decision making

…