B&W Prospective Innovation - Head of Skin

JOB TITLE B&W Prospective Innovation - Head of Skin

LOCATION 100VE

JOB PURPOSE

Are you passionate about innovation and eager to shape the future of beauty? Do you thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and embrace the challenges of the unknown? Unilever’s newly established Beauty & Wellness (B&W) Prospective Innovation & Sustainable Department is looking for a passionate beauty enthusiast to join our pioneering team and be at the forefront of global beauty innovation.

This multi-disciplinary team is dedicated to crafting and creating sustainable, innovative solutions from inception to execution. Through experimentation, iteration, and deep transformation, we aim to elevate B&W brands by unlocking their purpose, science, and consumer desire to new heights and establishing a new ecosystem of groundbreaking ideas. Our mission is to curate innovations based on strategic B&W priorities and growth spaces with the potential to define the future of beauty. We craft with consumer at the heart: from defining the Trends to landing these as turn-key innovation ideas across our brands globally.

If you’re ready to be part of a cutting-edge team with a startup mindset, this role is made for you.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Reporting to the Marketing Director – Skincare, you will be expected to set the direction for the Big Bold Moves (BBMs) for our Skincare brands, creating multi-year branded platforms that will set the leadership of UL B&W on disruptive trends at speed & at scale.

• Shape the Strategy & Future of Our Core Business: Support the Skin Care Brand Partner & Design Lead by feeding into the growth opportunities, to ensure these help our brands drive their strategy at scale & lead these into brand innovation roadmaps & projects.

• Refine Beauty Craftsmanship & Storytelling via Science and Desire: Deliver through your team by seamlessly blending scientific & aesthetics/semiotics insights with consumer desires & deep brand understanding, honing your craft in beauty storytelling to help our products stand out in the market.

• Deliver innovation projects under the BBMs: Use agile approach to deliver innovation aligned with future market opportunities / future consumer needs. Lead multi-functional project teams (Mkg, CMI, R&D, SC, Finance, Regs, Legal), partnering closely with BGs & Business Unit teams to execute and bring innovations to market across the full marketing mix.

• Own budget, recommend investment required for assigned brand category activities

• Team management: Lead a team of 3 (1x Marketing Manager, 2x Marketing Assistant Managers)

• The scope of this role is global, which means that you will be partnering with both Global & local teams in our top BUs and markets (e.g. US, UK, India…) & have the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of different consumer trends and unique market dynamics globally.

KEY BEHAVIOURS REQUIRED:

• Strategic  & fact-informed thinking: Ability to build & assess strategic ambition, and connect the dots between trends & brands strategy with good instinctive judgement to focus on the biggest opportunities. Able to filter relevant feedback while keeping a global mindset.

• Entrepreneurial Drive, with high stakeholder influencing know-how: You are a proactive, accountable doer with the determination & agility to make things happen, forging strong working relationships with senior stakeholders, cross-functional partners and agencies, eager to learn, resilient & apt at finding solutions where others see blockers. Maintain an outward focus, building strong partnerships.

• Consumer-Centric: Strong bias towards understanding and prioritizing consumer needs.

• Aesthetic Excellence: You have a keen eye for detail, a strong sense of aesthetics, and take pride in delivering high-quality work—never settling for "good enough."

• Learning Orientation: Willingness to listen, learn, and incorporate expertise from others.

• Resilience & managing ambiguity: Maintain effectiveness & ability to deliver when managing uncertainty and volatility with a can-do attitude.

• Collaborative Team Player: Thrive in team settings, contributing to collective success without being territorial.

• Organizational Excellence: Push boundaries, stay focused, and know when to move forward without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.

MUST-HAVE EXPERIENCE:

• Educational Background: A university degree or equivalent professional qualification.

• Passion for Skincare and Beauty Trends: You are naturally curious, always on the lookout for the latest beauty trends, with a particular personal passion & curiosity for Skincare brands and how they engage with their audiences.

• Integrated Marketing Expertise: Proven experience in brand development with a focus on delivering bottom-line results.

• Innovation Leadership: Previous experience in a Global/Regional Innovation role is essential, with a strong understanding of the Skin Care category.

• Project Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead and deliver complex projects with multiple stakeholders. Ideally – ability to drive innovation at portfolio level

• Diverse Experience: Experience in both smaller, growth-stage companies and larger, established businesses.

• Effective Communication: Communicate clearly and persuasively, tailoring your approach to different audiences

• Storytelling & Communication: Articulate ideas compellingly across various media, from websites to social platforms

• Financial Savvy: Strong awareness of financial metrics, with experience leading P&Ls and driving business performance across levers.

What we offer

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).

Location

In 2020, Unilever announced the intention to build a new sustainable campus site in Kingston, London to house the employees who currently work in 100 Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars ("100VE"), Lever House in Kingston and Graze in Richmond, the build is due to be complete in early 2025. Most recently, in August 2024, we announced our intention to retain our premises in 100VE until our lease expires in 2027.

We are due to consult with our existing workforce on the new proposal to retain 100VE for the duration of our lease. Therefore, until such a time consultation has concluded as to the retention of our 100VE office, this role will be based in 100 Victoria Embankment until early 2025 and then will move to the Kingston Campus.