Senior Product Manager UKI and ANZ – Elida Beauty

Senior Product Manager UKI and ANZ – Elida Beauty

Key Brand Portfolio: Toni and Guy, VO5, Alberto Balsam, Brylcreem, Impulse

Work Location – UK, flexible

Job Type- Full Time

Who we are … we are Elida Beauty

Elida Beauty is a very exciting beauty business unit within Unilever. We are re-founding iconic brands by remixing them for today’s generation, making them even bigger beauty hits than they were the first time around. Our remixes democratize beauty, because we want everyone on the ‘beauty dance floor’ with top-quality products at great value.

Driven by our colleague’s creativity, agility and close connection with consumers, customers, and suppliers, we are able to unleash the true potential of our already loved brands with a fresh start. We ‘Re-Found’ them using a start-up mentality that always ‘finds a way’. Our ‘no silos’, one team approach drives both personal and business growth so that together we deliver outcomes that are music to the ears of consumers, customers, colleagues and the planet alike.

What is this role?

We are looking for an experienced innovation specialist within a newly created innovation only focused team, with potential to work across all the key brands within the Elida Beauty portfolio. The role requires working with multiple partners, including the brand focused teams, as well as the usual functions across the rest of the business (R&D, Supply Chain, Finance).

Exciting and fast-paced, this will be a busy and dynamic environment where you will be expected to work collectively with colleagues across the business to unlock the power of our brands for both consumers and the customer. This is an exciting role that covers product development for launches in the UK, Ireland and ANZ with reach in extended markets. The brand portfolio stretches across premium and more value propositions, making it a rich but complex collection of brands. A passion for consumer understanding will be key, as we seek to lead categories with highly functional product performance linked to insight driven claims that result in conversion to sales. Reporting into the UK and Ireland Innovation Director you will be part of a team of up to 5, with responsibilities stretching across innovation strategy, process, planning and execution, as well as margin accretion and compliancy initiatives across the Elida Beauty portfolio. You will need to work particularly closely internally with brand, category, commercial, R&D, finance, and supply chain teams as well as external partners to deliver exciting innovation roadmap plans and new product launches into market.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Leading insight into claims: Together with the Brand leads and Consumer Insights Director, you will identify a bank of clear product pain points and tensions that consumers face in relation to our product categories. Working with R&D and potential 3rd party manufacturing partners you will then need to translate these into claims roadmaps, and match these to formulas that deliver exciting new propositions to consumers, and fantastic trade stories for our customers.
• Leading development of innovation roadmaps: Working closely with the Brand Directors, you will input into the range architectures for the portfolios, taking the lead on identifying NPD gaps and opportunities, or upgrades that can drive brand or profit growth.
• Market and consumer trend expert: This individual will need to be passionate about products and trends, keeping up to speed with the beauty industry more widely, how retail and shopping habits are changing, latest packaging options, and what is going on in popular culture generally. Ensuring we take a fully inclusive approach to our brands will be key, ensuring that we understand all hair types, as well as taking into account the diversity of our shoppers.
• Innovation project manager: It will be your responsibility to guide projects from insight through to execution in market – making an exciting growth plan a reality. You will also need to partner with a cross functional team across supply chain, R&D and finance, to design new products (formula/pack/fragrance), gather stakeholder inputs to sign off key project milestones at appropriate times, and manage delivery to an aligned network for stock in warehouse. Working with the Brand Directors you will ensure that thorough post launch evaluations are conducted to ensure all learnings are recycled back into the business.
• Building strong business cases: A critical part of this role will be to provide a sound strategic and financial rationale for each project in terms of what it will bring to the Elida business. This will require you to work closely with the Consumer Insights Director to pull relevant market data and design a cost effective research plan to demonstrate consumer need and size of opportunity. You will also need to work with the cross functional team to ensure that new products meet cost of goods and margin targets, with a fully modelled financial business case.
• Design for channel champion: Given the fragmentation of retail channels across eCommerce and bricks and mortar, you and your team will have to make recommendations on sizing strategies and work with the R&D team to ensure packaging meets the needs of the channel.
• Artwork co-ordination: As a critical element of the innovation mix, you will be required to lead artwork development with the support of an artwork specialist for both innovation and compliancy projects. This will involve the adaptation of a new artwork process and network of stakeholders that is fit for the Elida business.

Requirements

We are looking for someone with 2+ years at management level with experience in new product development and project management.

You must be able to demonstrate proven capability/past experience in…

• Identifying consumer pain points/product insights and translating them into product opportunities. Included within this will be an appreciation for leading for formulas and claims that animate insights and deliver fantastic product experiences to drive conversion to sales.
• Excellent organization skills in managing innovation projects from start to finish, and on time
• Understanding of research methods to underpin project viability
• Range/portfolio architecture design
• Transfer of data into portfolio strategy (sizing, pack delivery, gaps, etc.)
• Senior stakeholder management
• Experience in managing cross functional teams and external partners
• Strong working experience in building business cases for innovation
• Clear understanding of the UK retail mass market, with experience developing exciting trade stories
• Desire to measure success and recycle key learnings back into the innovation process
• Management of the design and delivery of artworks (including legal, regulatory and quality assurance checks via the appropriate experts.)

Who you are…

• Glass half full. You will be a positive solution finder, who is driven, curious, and bold. But also honest and empathetic, this is a team orientated environment where everyone has a voice and you must be willing to listen to different points of view.
• Passionate about products and trends. You want to get under the skin of what will really drive an amazing product experience and create the next big thing!
• A great negotiator and influencer. This is a complex role, with many stakeholders and inputs. You will need to have patience and be able to flex your style and approach.
• A pragmatic problem solver. Driven by working in a high functioning team with the flexibility to navigate the inevitable twists, turns and delays faced in the innovation process.
• Excited to push boundaries. You will be able to find creative solutions within tight budgets.
• Confident in your own abilities. A natural leader who enjoys a dynamic fast paced environment, with high levels of responsibility and autonomy.

Join us…

To ensure that your personal creativity helps to unlock our potential, we will upskill and reskill you. We will develop leading-edge digital marketing skills and best-in-class teamworking capabilities.

Most importantly, we will give you the autonomy to use them like a ‘founder’. We will help you to think like a CEO so that we all focus on delivering our Purpose and so you drive growth as you develop. Imagine how good we will feel when we see that our creativity reignites growth in the business because consumers embrace our new ideas.

Better for our consumers, better for the world and better for each of us

The way we manufacture, package and distribute our products will be better for everyone and for the planet. We will bring a new meaning to diversity and inclusion by providing access to beauty products that suit every kind of skin and hair.

Excited about the Role?

Please apply online. Your application will be reviewed against our requirements and we will be in touch to provide you with an update on the status of your application.