HEAD OF FRAGRANCE CREATION & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – MIDDLE EAST

Palomba General Trading; Abu Dhabi; Hybrid; AED 357,000 - 536,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-related compensation

Medical insurance

International travel

Fragrance-house collaboration

Supplier and perfumer development

Participation in international perfume

Direct influence over fragranceConcept

Job summary

Palomba General Trading LLC seeks a senior fragrance professional to lead creation and development for Middle Eastern and international markets. The Head will oversee concept to final fragrance, coordinating perfumers, raw materials, and consumer positioning.

The role requires balancing artistic and technical perfumery skills, managing briefs, evaluating submissions, and guiding development through stability, performance, and cost considerations.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years professional fragrance-industry experience preferred.
• Significant fine-fragrance development experience.
• Direct experience working with professional perfumers.
• Strong professional olfactory evaluation ability.
• Experience managing fragrance briefs.
• Experience leading fragrance modifications.
• Strong understanding of natural and synthetic raw materials.
• Understanding of fragrance performance.
• Experience with premium or luxury fragrance strongly preferred.
• Middle East fragrance experience strongly advantageous.
• Excellent English required.
• French advantageous.
• Arabic advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Develop new fragrance concepts.
• Create professional olfactory briefs.
• Define fragrance families and creative directions.
• Work directly with perfumers.
• Evaluate initial submissions.
• Lead modification rounds.
• Guide raw-material choices.
• Develop product stories based on genuine fragrance structure.
• Coordinate technical feasibility.
• Evaluate performance and longevity.
• Support cost optimisation without destroying the fragrance.
• Coordinate sample development.
• Support final formula approval.
• Develop proactive fragrance collections.
• Monitor new materials and fragrance trends.
• Build a structured development pipeline.
• Participate in customer and partner presentations.

Skills

Fragrance development

Perfumer collaboration

Brief management

Olfactory evaluation

Market awareness

Team leadership

Job description

HEAD OF FRAGRANCE CREATION & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – MIDDLE EAST

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Employment Type: Full-time

Workplace: Hybrid / Fragrance lab and international collaboration

Indicative Salary: AED 32,000–48,000 gross per month + performance component

Sector: Fine Fragrance | Arabian Perfumery | Product Development | Essential Oils | Creative Direction

Palomba General Trading LLC is seeking a senior fragrance professional capable of leading the creation and development of new fragrance concepts for Middle Eastern and international markets.

This role is for someone who can connect:

creative concept + perfumer + raw materials + consumer positioning + formula development + finished fragrance.

The successful candidate should understand both the artistic and technical sides of perfumery.

This is not a perfume retail role.

This is not simply fragrance evaluation.

This is not conventional marketing.

The objective is to create products.

Develop commercially relevant fragrance concepts from the initial idea through final product selection.

The Head of Fragrance Creation & Product Development will manage:

concept → olfactory brief → raw-material direction → perfumer collaboration → evaluation → modification → stability/performance → final fragrance.

Projects may include:

• fine fragrance;
• Arabian perfumery;
• extrait de parfum;
• eau de parfum;
• attars;
• fragrance oils;
• selected luxury home-fragrance concepts.

• Develop new fragrance concepts.
• Create professional olfactory briefs.
• Define fragrance families and creative directions.
• Select benchmarks.
• Work directly with perfumers.
• Evaluate initial submissions.
• Lead modification rounds.
• Guide raw-material choices.
• Develop product stories based on genuine fragrance structure.
• Coordinate technical feasibility.
• Evaluate performance and longevity.
• Support cost optimisation without destroying the fragrance.
• Coordinate sample development.
• Support final formula approval.
• Develop proactive fragrance collections.
• Monitor new materials and fragrance trends.
• Build a structured development pipeline.
• Participate in customer and partner presentations.

The candidate should understand fragrance architecture including:

• top notes;
• heart;
• base;
• diffusion;
• signature;
• contrast;
• texture;
• dry-down;
• substantivity;
• performance.

The role requires enough olfactory sophistication to communicate meaningfully with professional perfumers.

Strong familiarity with materials and structures such as:

• oud;
• rose;
• saffron;
• amber;
• incense;
• musk;
• leather;
• sandalwood;
• patchouli;
• frankincense;
• powerful woody-amber systems.

The objective is not to produce another predictable rose-oud fragrance because somebody discovered both ingredients exist.

The role should help create modern Middle Eastern fragrances with genuine identity.

Strong appreciation of natural materials is highly relevant.

Examples include:

• bergamot;
• lemon;
• mandarin;
• orange;
• rose;
• patchouli;
• vetiver;
• cedarwood;
• frankincense;
• galbanum;
• resins;
• absolutes.

The candidate should understand when naturals genuinely improve a composition and when they are being included mainly because marketing wants the word "natural" on a slide.

The role should monitor:

• new aroma molecules;
• specialty naturals;
• innovative extraction methods;
• high-impact materials;
• captive-style ingredient trends;
• modern musk systems;
• woody amber technologies;
• novel diffusion systems.

The Head of Fragrance Creation should be capable of telling a perfumer:

• what needs to change;
• why it needs to change;
• what should remain untouched;
• how the modification should affect the consumer experience.

Feedback such as "make it richer" is insufficient.

Useful feedback might be:

Reduce the sweetness in the opening, strengthen the dry woody structure and improve diffusion after four hours without increasing the aggressive amber effect.

That is the level of discussion expected.

The candidate should evaluate:

• opening quality;
• evolution;
• balance;
• originality;
• diffusion;
• longevity;
• dry-down;
• market relevance;
• technical quality.

They should distinguish between a fragrance that smells attractive for five minutes and one capable of becoming a commercially credible product.

The role goes beyond scent evaluation.

It should consider:

• concentration;
• alcohol vs oil format;
• raw-material cost;
• technical stability;
• packaging interaction;
• regulatory constraints;
• target retail positioning;
• competitive environment.

The Head may develop themed fragrance collections such as:

• Modern Oud
• Contemporary Arabia
• Mediterranean Naturals
• New Generation Musk
• Desert Woods
• Citrus Reinvented
• Modern Incense
• Rose Beyond Oud
• Luxury Gourmand
• Neo Amber

These collections can be used for both internal development and customer presentations.

Relevant previous titles may include:

• Fragrance Development Director
• Creative Fragrance Director
• Senior Fragrance Development Manager
• Senior Evaluator
• Creative Evaluator
• Fragrance Innovation Manager
• Senior Perfumer with Development Responsibility
• Olfactive Creative Director

• Minimum 8 years professional fragrance-industry experience preferred.
• Significant fine-fragrance development experience.
• Direct experience working with professional perfumers.
• Strong professional olfactory evaluation ability.
• Experience managing fragrance briefs.
• Experience leading fragrance modifications.
• Strong understanding of natural and synthetic raw materials.
• Understanding of fragrance performance.
• Experience with premium or luxury fragrance strongly preferred.
• Middle East fragrance experience strongly advantageous.
• Excellent English required.
• French advantageous.
• Arabic advantageous.

Indicative fixed compensation:

AED 32,000–48,000 gross per month

depending on seniority and direct fragrance-development experience.

Additional package may include:

• performance-related compensation;
• medical insurance;
• international travel;
• fragrance-house collaboration;
• supplier and perfumer development sessions;
• participation in international fragrance exhibitions;
• direct influence over the development of new fragrance concepts.

Palomba General Trading LLC develops international business across natural ingredients, essential oils, botanical extracts, flavours, fragrances and specialty raw materials and already works across GCC and European markets.