Category Technical Lead - Wellness

GSK • Warren, NJ

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Category Technical Lead – Wellness is accountable for end‑to‑end technical lifecycle strategy, execution and technical performance across formulation and packaging for the Operating Unit to enable growth, margin, cash and stewardship. The role is mission‑critical in ensuring technical readiness, compliant supply, robust innovation delivery, and sustainable cost competitiveness. This role acts as the single OU technical integrator, connecting category strategy, Innovation, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Packaging, Site Technical, and external manufacturing partners (CMOs/CDMOs). It ensures that technical decisions are aligned to business strategy, regulatory requirements (trusted ingredients, spec management), and long‑term supply resilience, including sourcing decisions while enabling speed to market and margin delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of technical experience in formulation, packaging, manufacturing technologies, validation, technical operations, or PLM within regulated consumer healthcare, pharmaceutical, FMCG, or related environments.
• Strong end-to-end product lifecycle experience across innovation execution, technical transfer, product maintenance, optimization, simplification, and technical readiness.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical programs and resolve technical risks across sites, functions, and external manufacturing partners.
• Strong matrix leadership and stakeholder influence across Quality, R&D, Commercial, Procurement, Manufacturing, Category, and global technical teams.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Business, or a related field.
• Operational Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement experience.
• Ability to translate Category and OU strategy into executable technical roadmaps, fact-based recommendations, and clear business narratives.
• Experience making sound decisions in regulated environments while balancing speed, compliance, quality, cost, supply resilience, and long-term technical stewardship.
• Commercial mindset with experience delivering margin improvement, cost savings, capital productivity, or operational outcomes through technical interventions.
• Experience leading global or cross-market technical transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the OU technical lifecycle plan for OU, covering formulation and packaging across innovation (technical execution), product maintenance, technical transfers, and simplification initiatives.
• Ensure technical readiness, aligning design, manufacturing capability, validation, and supply robustness with category and OU priorities.
• Accountable for technical execution of complex projects, including innovation launches, value engineering, product maintenance, waste reduction, and process optimization initiatives.
• Build highly capable and performing OU and Site Technical Teams ensuring local subject matter expertise, interdependent with global Technical, leveraging global SMEs.
• Partner with Category, R&D, Marketing, and Commercial teams to translate category strategy into executable OU technical roadmaps.
• Lead product, technology, and competitor benchmarking, driving formulation and packaging simplification in line with Design‑to‑Value principles.
• Ensure alignment between Innovation leaders and Category Technical Readiness Leads for disciplined innovation execution and lifecycle management.
• Develop and maintain a documented OU Technical strategy, clearly aligned to OU Business Strategy, Portfolio and category priorities, supply risk and POS outlook. Use the strategy to prioritize work, guide stakeholder alignment, and unlock value at pace.
• Lead OU technical execution for NPIs and geo‑expansion projects, ensuring on‑time, in‑full delivery with scalable and compliant post‑launch supply.
• Own technical readiness governance deliverables across innovation stages, ensuring readiness for capital investment, sourcing decisions, and manufacturing scale‑up.
• Champion Design‑to‑Value and Design‑for‑Manufacture to deliver robust, cost‑effective formulations and packaging solutions.
• Oversee technical maintenance activities, including formulation robustness, process optimization (e.g., BCT, ingredient harmonization), validation, and technical transfers.
• Lead PLM initiatives focused on complexity reduction (accountable for formulation simplification), margin improvement, and portfolio synergies, ensuring regulatory and quality compliance throughout the product lifecycle.
• Drive technical risk management, including troubleshooting, CAPA effectiveness, and continuous improvement embedded in Quality‑by‑Design principles.
• Provide OU technical leadership for packaging development, qualification, and validation across internal sites and CMOs.
• Drive packaging transformation and sustainability initiatives, including simplification (accountable for pack simplification), efficiency improvements, and delivery of environmental targets.
• Lead packaging value engineering programs with Procurement, sites and suppliers to deliver cost, resilience, and performance improvements.
• Ensure strong matrix leadership of Site Technical teams, enabling capability build while keeping sites focused on execution excellence.
• Provide technical oversight for CMO/CDMO networks, supporting tiering, technical readiness, and risk mitigation.
• Act as the OU escalation point for complex technical issues, ensuring timely resolution and prevention of recurrence.
• Execute key projects including selection, equipment installations and commissioning independent.
• Accountable for Capex and technical project costs within the region, ensuring value delivery, disciplined investment decisions, and alignment with OU ABP and LRP priorities.
• Deliver sustainable technical savings through value engineering, simplification, and manufacturing transformation programs.
• Actively build, maintain, and leverage trusted relationships with OU Commercial GMs, R&D, Quality, Supply Chain, and Global QSC leaders through regular 1:1 engagement, not transactional communication.
• Participate and co own the Commercial Category strategy.
• Proactively seek stakeholder feedback on collaboration effectiveness and course‑correct behaviors to improve enterprise outcomes.
• Serve as a credible thought partner to Commercial and GMs, shaping decisions rather than reacting to them.
• Ensure active participant of Seamless Technical Community interdependent with global technical, quality and engineering; enabling and maintaining global standards.

Benefits

• Competitive pay
• Comprehensive benefits program
• Generous 401(k) plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Time off programs
• 6 months paid parental leave
• Healthcare programs where the company pays for the majority of your medical coverage for you and your family
• Opportunity to receive a discretionary bonus based on the achievement of key business performance
• Other incentive/recognition programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior