Head of Brand Protection and Compliance

Ancient + Brave | B Corp; Lewes; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A mission-driven wellness brand in Lewes seeks a Head of Brand Protection and Compliance. The ideal candidate will oversee brand integrity and regulatory compliance, ensuring products exceed standards. This role involves trademark protection, product regulatory compliance, and acting as the Data Protection Officer. The company values sustainability and offers a collaborative workplace. Join us to innovate in wellness and empower women's health.

Benefits

Discretionary bonus

Private Medical Insurance

Continuous training opportunities

Stocked kitchen of products

25 annual leaves plus bank holidays

Wellbeing day

Qualifications

• Proven experience in regulatory compliance or brand protection within FMCG or wellness sectors.
• Very strong understanding of global regulatory landscapes (UK, EU, USA).
• Experience managing product registrations and external consultants.

Responsibilities

• File for trademarks and develop global brand protection strategies.
• Monitor and interpret regulatory requirements and ensure compliance.
• Lead compliance to GDPR and act as the Company’s Data Protection Officer.

Skills

Regulatory compliance experience

Negotiation skills

Project management skills

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

Job description

About Us

We are a mission driven wellness brand with an award winning range of collagen, blends and supplements. We started as all good businesses do, by seeing the opportunity to do things differently in a growing market. To carefully balance people, planet, and profit for the sake of the world around us and our health.

We are shaping the future of wellness with simple daily rituals, thoughtfully and sustainably designed to support women’s health. Our vision is to be the #1 wellness brand in the world, setting new standards for holistic health, sustainability and female empowerment.

As a B-Corp, Ancient + Brave meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact. In June 2024 we were named 5th in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies and we have recently been recognised as one of the FT 1000: Europe\'s Fastest Growing Companies, 2025.

Want to be a part of a team that’s shaping the future of health and wellbeing? We\'d love to have you!

The Role

We are looking for a passionate and strategic Head of Brand Protection and Compliance to champion the integrity of our brand as we continue to grow across global markets. In this role, you’ll take the lead on ensuring our products don’t just meet regulatory standards, they exceed them. From artwork compliance to implementing global brand protection strategies, your work will safeguard the heart of our brand, ensuring every label, claim, and detail reflects our brave standards of excellence and honours the trust our customers place in us. This is your chance to play a key role in protecting and enhancing our brand which we are incredibly proud of.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, you will be responsible for the following:

Trademark, Brand and Competition Protection

• File for trademarks in multiple regions in collaboration with Nutrition & Innovation and Brand teams.
• Develop and implement global brand protection strategies.
• Monitor and investigate intellectual property breaches, including trademarks, copyrights, packaging designs, and online infringements.
• Lead enforcement actions against counterfeit products and unauthorized use of brand assets across physical and digital platforms.
• Escalate breaches to relevant authorities as necessary.
• Manage relationships with external trademark and patent attorneys.
• Support internal awareness of regional communication and marketing compliance risks (e.g., CMA, FTC), and coordinate access to external advisors for risk mitigation.
• Train internal teams and external partners on brand protection policies and enforce Non-Disclosure Agreement usage and compliance.

Product Compliance

• Monitor and interpret regulatory requirements across markets, including packaging, recycling symbols, post-Brexit changes, and new regulations in the EU and USA, to ensure ongoing compliance and proactive risk mitigation.
• Advise internal teams on health claims, marketing compliance, and labelling risks in accordance with relevant market standards and consumer protection laws.
• Oversee packaging and labelling compliance for new markets, ensuring testing requirements, recyclability, and market-specific restrictions are addressed.
• Support the Senior Quality Manager in conducting risk analysis related to product quality, food safety, advertising regulations, and changes in relevant legislation.
• Ensure implementation of compliance-related improvement actions identified by cross-functional teams.
• Manage product registrations and regulatory filings, including:
  • European Union Article Number (EAN) updates for new product development (NPD) and existing product development (EPD)
  • Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) registration for food supplements
  • Applications for Harmonised System (HS) codes or commodity codes and coordination of supplement notifications via approved third-party partners
  • United States registrations, including Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), supplier onboarding, documentation coordination, and internal records updates
  • Maintain accurate and accessible archives of all product registration and compliance documentation.
• Support Retail and Logistics teams with registration and compliance requirements for both new market entries and product launches in existing markets.
• Manage relationships with external regulatory consultants and agencies (e.g., Check My Label EU, Scantech, AW Law USA, Blue Cactus), including identification and onboarding of new partners, definition of scope and deliverables, service level agreements (SLAs), and fee negotiations.

AI Governance & Data Protection

• Lead compliance to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), ensuring suitable risk assessment, mitigation activities, and training.
• Lead the Digital and collaborate with all other departments to manage data protection risks.
• Responsible for AI policy development, governance, and risk assessment.
• Lead AI risk mitigation and training.
• Act as the Company’s Data Protection Officer.

Risk Management & Mitigation Actions

• Own the related areas and actions with the Company Risk Assessment Register and maintain up-to-date mitigation actions, completion tracking, and deadlines.
• Report KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and ROI (Return on Investment) of brand protection initiatives to executive leadership.
• Identify emerging threats to brand reputation and product authenticity.

Environmental & Social Governance (ESG) Compliance

Lead ESG compliance initiatives including acquiring new product certifications (e.g., Non-GMO USA).

• Ensure certification symbols on artwork are accurate, up-to-date, and removed when necessary and collaborate with the relevant team members to implement required artwork changes.
• Initiate and lead access to external expert advice as required, e.g. competition law specialists, regional legal advice and compliance specialists.
• Support communication in case of Incident and Crisis Management, collaborating with C-Suite and appropriate external experts as applicable.

Who You Are

To be successful in this role, you will need the following skills / knowledge / experience:

• Proven experience in regulatory compliance or brand protection within FMCG, wellness, supplements, or food sectors.
• Very strong understanding of global regulatory landscapes (UK, EU, USA, emerging markets).
• Experience managing product registrations, regulatory submissions, and external consultants.
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent project management and documentation control skills.
• Familiarity with ESG and sustainability frameworks in product labelling and certifications is a plus.

Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. You will be:

• Hungry: Ambitious, driven with a growth mindset, always seeking ways to learn, develop and be better.
• Humble: No ego, collaborative team player, always acts with integrity and clear sense of accountability, aligned with our B-Corp values.
• High Performing - Effective. Efficient, with a solid work ethic. Always operates with self-awareness that enables them to consistently push for exceptional results—while maintaining resilience, balance, and self-care.
• Hustle: Entrepreneurial. Innovative, fast-paced, great communicator. Always adept at solving problems and navigating dynamic, ever-changing situations.

Why Join Us

Ancient + Brave are a community-built brand and embracing innovation and sustainability with social and environmental responsibility is at the heart of everything we do. We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards when it comes to our commitment to balance profit and purpose - working with us means being part of building a truly sustainable product. We are B Corp certified and members of 1% for the Planet, committed to giving back a portion of all sales towards helping environmental partners, so we can work together towards a better future for our planet.

At Ancient + Brave you’ll find an engaging, collaborative and inclusive work environment where your talents will be nurtured, and your contributions valued.

We provide all our team members with suitable laptop computers & headphones and our office is equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and sitting + standing desks. Our kitchen is fully stocked with the usual supplies as well as limitless supply of A+B products (you also get 50% off on any product you wish to purchase).

We pay a discretionary bonus based on a mix of company performance and individual contributions and review our salaries annually. Our pension contributions are ESG invested (so no pharma, weapons or other ethically questionable investments).

Our Private Medical Insurance is designed to support your health and wellbeing, providing swift access to high-quality care whenever you need it most.

Our Medicash plan offers access to specialist consultations, 24/7 Virtual GP and health screenings as well as dental, optical and complementary therapies and access to confidential support via its EAP programme.

Our Mintago platform gives employees access to financial wellbeing advice and support as well as retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes, which cover childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries and mobile/tech purchase.

In addition to our regular annual holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays, we also offer one Wellbeing day to use as needed.

We offer continuous training & professional development opportunities and our team members get to enjoy complimentary nutrition and workout sessions in the office. We support a number of charities, coordinating our fund-raising initiatives for maximum impact. We hold two social events a year to come together and connect in a meaningful way.

An important note on our ways of working…
As a fast-paced scale-up, we’ve found that spending time together in person is hugely beneficial to the way we’re needing to communicate, collaborate and drive the business forward. We’ve worked hard to make our new HQ (a beautiful riverside office situated in Lewes, East Sussex) an inviting and friendly environment for all of our team members and we expect any new joiner to be in the office full time.

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace culture. We embrace varied perspectives and encourage creativity that knows no bounds. While most of our roles are advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time setup where appropriate.