Principal Innovation Scientist

Haleon; Weybridge; On-site; GBP 95,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Haleon seeks a Principal Innovation Scientist to lead wellness innovation initiatives across the European operations. You will partner with commercial teams and R&D to shape a consumer-led pipeline that aligns with Haleon’s category priorities, while ensuring regulatory compliance and robust technical leadership throughout development.

You will leverage consumer insights, drive collaborations across functions, and manage external relationships to accelerate market readiness and adoption of

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Nutrition or related scientific discipline.
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to frame problems with supporting data.
• Strong technical understanding to deliver wellness innovation to the marketplace and comply with regulatory expectations.
• History of successful formulation and/or product development to launch.
• Experience collaborating with Regulatory, Product Development, Packaging, Consumer Understanding, Medical Affairs, Supply Chain and Clinical Development.
• Clear communicator in both oral and written form with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience in consumer-focused global healthcare products/brand management.
• Maintains external networks and represents the organization on innovation topics.
• Proven ability to solve complex technical and operational problems and deliver results.

Responsibilities

• Lead wellness innovation projects across the OU to deliver Europe’s growth ambitions.
• Partner with commercial teams and R&D to maintain a balanced pipeline aligned to category priorities.
• Incorporate consumer insights to ensure innovation remains relevant throughout development.
• Collaborate with medical, regulatory and other teams to accelerate speed to market in a regulated environment.
• Provide technical leadership to unlock new products and visuals compliant with regulations.
• Manage external supplier relationships to inform sourcing strategies and opportunities.
• Oversee governance, costs, risks and decision-making for innovation projects.

Skills

Analytical skills

Strategic thinking

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Project development

Education

Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Nutrition or related scientific discipline

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

Job Purpose:

• Be responsible for leading and driving wellness innovation projects across the OU to deliver Europe’s growth ambitions
• Partner with commercial team and R&D 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 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 procurement on product sourcing strategies, qualification activities and innovation oppurtunities

Key Responsibilities:

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 product development requirements and the associated regulatory constriants, 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 wellness initiatvies 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, Skills and Experience:

• Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Nutrition or related scientific discipline
• 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 wellness innovation to the marketplace is necessary along with a good grasp of the wider internal expectations for delivering wellness 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 procurement and the evaluation of external opportunities, including due diligence
• Maintains external networks and represents the organization on many topics in the 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

2026-10-05

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. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.

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.