New Product Development Manager jobs in United Arab Emirates

Who We Are: At Huda Beauty, our Vision is to lead in creating a democratized beauty industry where power is given back to people to define, create, and enjoy beauty for themselves! Launched by award-winning beauty powerhouse Huda Kattan in 2013, Huda Beauty is one of the world's fastest growing beauty brands. As a company, we are fueled by purpose and not profit, this allows us to approach things differently so that we can create products, content, and a community like no other. A lot has changed since our launch in 2013, but something that will forever remain at the core of Huda Beauty is our focus on business excellence and our unwavering passion for kindness!

Summary: We are looking for a talented New Product Development Assistant Manager to drive executional excellence across our fast-paced makeup category launches. Sitting within the Supply Chain department, this role plays a strategic link between departments: coordinating timelines, aligning stakeholders, and keeping complex projects on track from concept to launch. While the ideal candidate won't be developing products, his/her work will be critical in coordinating all the tasks associated with the launch across the organization, ensuring that Huda Beauty supplies its customers with new innovative products on time and in full, at the targeted quality level and at the quickest speed to market within the industry. This is a high-visibility and impact role ideal for a proactive project manager with a passion for beauty.

Requirements

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Management & Execution

• Lead the end-to-end project management of new product launches in your assigned category, by planning and tracking all steps from concept generation to launch, ensuring timing, quantity and KPIs targets are achieved
• Build and maintain detailed project timelines, adapting based on complexity, supplier feedback, and business needs on Asana, Huda Beauty's internal project management software
• Provide the Product Development team with launch feasibility and scenarios as and when requested using standard time plan templates that vary in duration and need to be adapted according to product specification and complexity
• Manage each launch through the defined NPD phases (Exploration, Development, Execution) using Huda Beauty's standardized processes
• Own the end-to-end project management of the 'Changes' category, including product renovations, reformulations, and improvement in your assigned category, ensuring smooth execution alongside new innovations
• Help in building the Huda Beauty 24-month category launch calendar in collaboration with Product Development & Product Marketing

Cross-Functional & Supplier Coordination

• Align and coordinate with internal teams including Product Development, Packaging, Quality, Regulatory, Purchasing, Finance, Design, Regional Markets, S&OP and Logistics
• Clearly define roles and responsibilities across project stakeholders to ensure seamless execution
• Drive weekly cross-functional meetings, setting clear agendas, tracking milestones, and issuing follow-ups
• Work with Demand Planning and Regional teams on launch forecasts and coordinate purchase orders placement for components and finished goods aligned with forecasted needs
• Collaborate closely with external suppliers and contract manufacturers to ensure timelines, quality, and delivery standards are met
• Ensure that all critical information (e.g., BOMs, specs, quantities, production plans, shipping plans) is defined and continuously refined throughout development

Risk Management & Communication

• Anticipate and mitigate risks across development, production, and shipping phases and proactively look for solutions when they occur
• Create contingency plans as needed in partnership with the NPD Manager
• Provide proactive communication to leadership through project updates, alerts, and solution-driven status reports while encouraging an environment of full transparency
• Present key project updates in senior leadership meetings, including forums with the Founder and Executive team

Process Improvement

• Work on postmortem launch analysis to capture learnings from launches, evaluate and reflect on challenges and solutions, and implement process improvements
• Find ways to streamline timelines and reduce lead times without compromising quality or service
• Actively contribute into building and executing the annual team strategic roadmap, constantly identifying opportunities to improve and enhance our NPD processes and ways of working

Requirements:

• 4-5 years of experience in NPD, project management, or launch coordination, preferably in the beauty or FMCG space
• Excellent organizational and planning skills, with sharp attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, confident leading cross-functional meetings and presenting to senior leadership teams
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment
• Analytical and problem-solving skills for troubleshooting launches challenges and risks
• Strong knowledge of product development and supply chain workflows
• Comfortable using project management tools, ideally similar to Asana

Benefits

Our Benefits & Perks:

• Monthly "Self Love Days" - at company discretion
• Premium Medical/Dental/Vision coverage for employee plus dependents
• Monthly coaching sessions with our in-house Success Coach
• Employee discounts on all Huda Beauty, Wishful, and Kayali products
• Quarterly product gifting

Huda Beauty is committed to building diverse and inclusive teams and upholding an equal employment workplace that is free from discrimination. We hire stellar individuals regardless of their race, color, ancestry, religion, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, medical conditions, disability, or veteran status. If you need reasonable accommodations at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.