Principal Innovation Scientist

Haleon plc.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Haleon is seeking a Principal Innovation Scientist (Onsite 3 days a week) to lead OTC innovation projects across the organization. You will align with global stakeholders, translate consumer insights into actionable ideas, and drive regulatory-compliant development from concept to market.

The role requires strong technical formulation knowledge, regulatory understanding, and proven ability to collaborate across geographies to accelerate speed-to-market.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nutrition, or related field.
• Master's/PhD preferred in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nutrition, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Lead OTC innovation projects across the OU to meet Europe growth ambitions.
• Collaborate with global category and OU stakeholders to balance the OU pipeline.
• Incorporate consumer insights to ensure consumer relevance through project lifecycle.
• Work with regulatory, medical and technical colleagues to accelerate pace in a regulated environment.
• Provide scientific leadership to develop compliant products, claims and visuals.
• Partner with External Innovation on product sourcing and due diligence.

Skills

Formulation expertise

OTC development

Regulatory knowledge

People agility

Execution capability

Data-driven

Agile mindset

Education

Bachelor's in Chemistry/Pharmaceutical Sciences

Master's or PhD preferred

Job description

Welcome to Haleon. We're a purpose-driven, world-class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we've grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity.

Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science.

Now it's time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance-focused culture.

Principal Innovation Scientist (Onsite 3 days a week required for Bankside, London)

Job Purpose:

• Be responsible for leading and driving OTC innovation projects across the OU to deliver Europe’s growth ambitions.
• Partner with global category and OU stakeholders to support a full and balanced OU pipeline that is aligned to Haleon’s category priorities.
• Bring the voice of the consumer to the table, leveraging local market insights to shape innovation ideas and ensuring consumer relevance is maintained throughout the project lifecycle.
• Work closely with medical, regulatory and other technical colleagues to execute OTC initiatives at pace, seeking out opportunities to accelerate speed to market in a highly regulated environment.
• Provide scientific and technical leadership to unlock superior products/claims/visuals that are compliant with local medicines regulation, quality/CMC aspects and other dossier requirements.
• Partner with QSC and External Innovation on product sourcing strategies, qualification activities and and external due diligence.

Skills & Experience:

Strong Technical Knowledge

• Strong technical (formulation and process) knowledge to deliver the innovation and development pipeline as part of our innovation aspiration.
• Solid grasp of OTC development requirements and the associated regulatory constraints, and/or passion to proactively upskill in the area.
• Continuously upgrading the technical knowledge of self and team via external surveillance (literature, patents, competitor intelligence), networking and formal trainings.

Strong People Agility

• Proven people management skills to build connections and engagement with cross functional teams and people with different backgrounds.
• Proven strong collaboration skills with people at all levels in cross functional team and multiple geographies.
• Effectively build and manage external relationships with suppliers to inform the development and implementation of the innovation strategy.

Execution Powerhouse

• Deliver qualified (consumer and technical) innovation projects in close collaboration with cross functional teams and successfully transition them into commercialization.
• Provide technical support and scientific leadership for wider OTC initiatives executed across the OU.
• Keep OU stakeholders informed of the proposed innovation development, costs, risks, risk mitigation and probability of success, to enable informed decision-making at governance boards.

Consumer and Customer-Obsessed

• Serve as the voice of the consumer when developing innovation opportunities through close interaction with consumer insights and product understanding, driving early consumer input / technical consumer understanding into early pipeline and prototype development.
• Create technical and product understanding research plans to fit overall project deliverables.

Data-Driven

• Perform comprehensive and critical evaluation of internal and external data.
• Author technical papers/presentations.
• Lead due diligence on external innovation opportunities and deliver strong technical recommendations.

Agile

• Deliver innovative and better ways of doing things; actively champion the elimination of non-value-added processes and procedures.

Required Knowledge, Education & Experience:

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nutrition, or a related scientific field.
• Preferred: Master's degree or PhD in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nutrition, or a related scientific field.

Key Competencies

• Excellent analytical skills, including strategic thinking, ability to frame problems and opportunities using supporting data, problem solving and measuring impact.
• Strong technical understanding on the requirements to deliver OTC innovation (regulatory/CMC aspects) to the marketplace is necessary along with a good grasp of the wider internal expectations for delivering OTC products.
• History of successful formulation and/or product development to launch.
• Experience of partnering with Regulatory, Product Development, Packaging, Consumer Understanding, Medical Affairs, Supply Chain and Clinical Development on the requirements for product development and an understanding of the approval processes.
• Clear communicator in both oral and written form with both internal departments and external organisations.
• Experience in consumer-focused global healthcare related products / brand management.
• Experience of working with External Innovation and the evaluation of external opportunities, including due diligence.
• Maintains external networks and represents the organization on many topics in a role of Innovation.
• Strong collaboration skills who can manage cross functional teams and delivers innovation pipeline in a highly matrixed organization.
• Proven ability to solve complex technical and operational problems in a timely manner.
• The incumbent should demonstrate proven creative ability and an innate passion to proactively identify and deliver new innovation into the pipeline and excellence in achieving results.
• Proven demonstration to take initiative, think and work independently, problem-solve, work effectively in teams and multitask.

Job Posting End Date 2026-09-21

Equal Opportunities

Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. Its important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.

During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees.

The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.

Adjustment or Accommodations Request

If you require a reasonable adjustment or accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please let your recruiter know by providing them with a description of specific adjustments you are requesting. We'll provide all reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process and treat all information you provide us in confidence.

Note to candidates

The Haleon recruitment team will contact you using a Haleon email account (@haleon.com). If you are not sure whether the email you received is from Haleon, please get in touch.