Director - Makeup Formulation

Estée Lauder Companies; Melville (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental & Vision insurance

Wellness programs

Life & disability insurance

Retirement savings plans

Education programs

Paid holidays

Paid vacation

Bonus plan eligibility

Job summary

Estée Lauder Companies is seeking a Director, R&I Lip Formulation to lead a high-performance team focused on lip makeup formulation and strategic platform development. You will guide innovative projects from concept through scale, aligning with business goals and market needs.

You will build talent and capability, drive new testing methodologies, and coordinate with stakeholders across Research & Innovation to deliver milestones from lab to production.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree required; MBA and/or Advanced scientific degree a plus.
• At least 10 years of R&D formulation development experience; lip category preferred.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects and teams in a dynamic environment.
• Strong stakeholder alignment, conflict facilitation and clear communication across workshops and meetings.

Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver complex lip makeup formulation projects with cross-functional input.
• Develop strategic lip formulation platforms and innovation pipelines.
• Coordinately across lab, pilot plant and factory scale-up activities.
• Build talent, mentor teams and foster a collaborative environment.
• Engage senior leaders with clear updates on progress and plans.

Skills

Lip formulation

Leadership

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or advanced degree (preferred)

Job description

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products, and is a steward of luxury and prestige brands globally. The company’s products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD, and BALMAIN Beauty.

Description

The Director, R&I Lip Formulation will lead formulation team to develop innovative solutions in the areas of lip makeup formulation and strategic platform establishment, ways of working, strategy, and other business challenges/opportunities with discernable impact on cost and consumer performance. You will assume a leadership position to build talent and capability, to create new trends and new benefit spaces in lip makeup categories by anticipating market trends and consumer needs. You will lead and guide the team with a scientific approach to formulation and assessment, including new testing and technical characterization methodologies. As the Makeup Lip Formulation Leader, you will coordinate cross-functional activities, ensuring the appropriate stakeholders are involved and providing Research and Innovation accountability for the formulation team delivery milestones as we scale make and fill activities from lab bench, to pilot plant, and ultimately to the factory.

Contributions

• Leads and delivers large or more complex projects, ensuring alignment with business needs & calendar.
• Identifies short & mid-term lip strategy and develops innovation pipeline for business & organization.
• Builds organizational talent & capability.
• Think strategically and strive for excellence.
• Act proactively, work collaboratively with others, and have strong attention to detail along with written, verbal and listening skills, presentation skills, and relationship building skills.
• Take a broad view of the business, industry, and consumer environment to anticipate and plan for the future.

Leadership

• Aligns and engages the team in the vision by providing clarity to each team member on their role in achieving the vision, strategy, and goals.
• Develops future talent.
• Embraces and leads the learning culture.

Technical

• Proficient & up to date in technical field related to color makeup especially anhydrous and emulsion system with focus on liquid lip and lipstick categories, translating consumer insights into creative and stable formulation.
• Drives creativity and innovation focus on areas of highest potential. Anticipate landscape changes and consumer needs to create new trends and new benefit spaces.
• Leads and drives scientific approach formulation and assessment, including development of new technology platforms, new testing and technical characterization methodologies.

Organizational

• Assess the current R&I organizational structure to identify opportunities to improve efficiencies and ways of working, develops future areas of internal organization/capability.
• Coaches, mentors & manages administration of team
• Builds collaborative relationship with stakeholders across the group and strong relationships with senior leaders across the company.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree required; MBA and/or Advanced scientific degree (ie. Master, PhD) a plus.
• At minimum, 10 years of R&D formulation development experience; lip category experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated strength in managing multiple projects, multiple team members and delivering programs in a dynamic environment.
• Extensive experience with aligning stakeholders, facilitating conflict, and communicating information in a way that enables leaders to have transparency on the underlying issues and potential solutions in varying settings including workshops, small group sessions or one‑on‑one meetings.

Pay Range

Anticipated Base Salary Range $140,000.00 to $190,000.00 (Depending on qualifications, skills, experience and/or budget), based on a 40 hour work week (range to be scaled accordingly). In addition, The Estée Lauder Companies offers a variety of benefits to eligible employees, including health insurance coverage (medical, dental, and vision insurance), wellness and family support programs, life and disability insurance, retirement savings plans, education-related programs, paid holidays and vacation time. In addition, the Company maintains highly competitive incentive compensation programs (role eligibility may vary based on terms of the respective plan(s)).

You may be eligible to participate in the applicable Commission/Bonus Plan, under the plan guidelines in effect at the time of hire. Additional details regarding the commission plan will be provided as part of your onboarding.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an equal-opportunity employer. Minorities, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Accommodations for job applicants with disabilities are available on request.

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