R&D Senior Product Development Scientist, Wellbeing Collective

Unilever•Trumbull, CT

4d•$103,000 - $154,400•Onsite

About The Position

Join us as R&D Senior Product Development Scientist, Wellbeing Collective. This role is part of the Global Wellbeing team, focused on Unilever’s growth in the Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements (VMS) space. The Wellbeing Collective Group (WBC) manages health and wellness brands like Liquid IV, Nutrafol, Olly, SmartyPants, Onnit, and Grüns. We operate in an agile, fast-moving, and collaborative environment, working in a project-based, networked way. This requires strategic thinking, entrepreneurial spirit, and the ability to leverage Unilever's strengths while navigating a large company structure. The role involves leading end-to-end technical delivery of innovation, new product development, and new market entry projects, translating brand ambitions into technical targets and robust product solutions. Responsibilities include formula design, global product chassis development, risk management, supporting value improvement, and enabling scale-up and launch readiness with internal and external partners. The position requires strong formulation and product development expertise and involves close collaboration with various cross-functional teams and external partners.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required in science, food science, nutrition, chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, engineering or a related technical discipline.
8+ years of relevant R&D experience in formulation development, technology development, product development or technical project delivery, preferably within VMS, functional nutrition, food, beverage, supplements, consumer health or adjacent CPG categories.
Proven experience leading technical workstreams or acting as Technical Project Lead for innovation, new product development, new market entry, quality improvement and/or value improvement initiatives across multiple brands, regions or technologies.
Strong technical understanding of product development principles, including formulation design, ingredient functionality, raw material selection, sensory and consumer requirements, product claims, stability, specification development, scale-up, costing, GMP and launch readiness.
Demonstrated ability to translate brand strategy, consumer insights, performance standards and market requirements into clear technical targets, product design principles and actionable R&D programs.
Strong technical judgment and problem-solving capability, with the ability to assess formulation, ingredient, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and supply risks, develop practical mitigation plans and make clear recommendations to support decision making.
Strong cross-functional leadership skills with experience working across R&D, Brand, Regulatory, Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, Packaging, Analytical, CTI, external manufacturers, contract laboratories and raw material suppliers.
Ability to manage external technical partners, including contract laboratories, research partners, suppliers, consultants and manufacturing sites, with clear scope definition, timeline management, technical review and quality delivery.
Strong project management skills with proven ability to manage multiple priorities, stakeholders, timelines and technical deliverables in a fast-paced, ambiguous and evolving business environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical information, influence cross-functional stakeholders, and interact effectively with senior internal and external leaders.
Self-starter with strong accountability, initiative, flexibility, learning agility and the ability to work independently with limited supervision while collaborating effectively in a networked, entrepreneurial environment.
Digitally savvy, with strong working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other digital tools to support documentation, project tracking, data analysis and efficient ways of working.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
Experience developing consumer-friendly ingestible dosage formats such as powders, gummies, tablets, capsules, liquids or other supplement/functional nutrition formats is preferred.
Global and multi-market experience is strongly preferred.
PLM knowledge is a plus.

Responsibilities

Act as Technical Project Lead for end-to-end technical delivery of innovation projects across multiple markets, including Canada and Latin America countries.
Independently lead technical workstreams from concept development through formulation, feasibility assessment, scale-up, validation, launch readiness and post launch support, ensuring projects are delivered on time and in line with agreed business, quality, regulatory and consumer requirements.
Design and develop global product chassis that can be adapted and rolled out across multiple markets, while balancing local regulatory, ingredient, claims, sensory and manufacturing requirements.
Drive reuse of proven technologies and base formulations to enable speed, consistency, scalability and greater business incrementality across regions.
Steer innovation pipeline by identifying technically feasible product opportunities, evaluating white spaces, assessing formulation and technology readiness, and translating business needs into actionable R&D programs.
Lead and support value improvement and cost saving initiatives through formula optimization, ingredient harmonization, process simplification, supplier evaluation and manufacturing efficiency improvements.
Serve as the global R&D liaison to drive harmonization and adoption of ingredients, processes, formulations and technologies from the US business into international markets.
Manage the central R&D lab, including prioritization of lab activities, sample preparation, prototype development, ingredient evaluation, formulation trials, documentation and coordination of lab resources.
Partner with Brand Managers to translate Brand Performance Standards (BPS), consumer insights and business ambition into clear technical targets, product design principles and measurable success criteria. Ensure superior products are designed, developed, validated and measured against agreed performance, sensory, claims, quality and consumer experience requirements.
Proactively identify, assess and escalate technical risks across formulation, ingredients, claims, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and supply readiness. Develop practical mitigation plans, recommendations and decision points to support timely management alignment and protect project delivery.
Identify, evaluate and manage external contract laboratories, raw material suppliers and technical partners to support product development activities.
Work closely with NSI, Analytical, Packaging and CTI teams to design and execute robust technical validation plans, including claim substantiation, analytical method development, stability studies, packaging trials, sensory studies and consumer/technical learning plans.
Partner with Supply Chain, Quality, Procurement and external manufacturers to support technical assessments, capability evaluation and establishment of contract manufacturing sites.
Draft, review, approve and maintain key technical documentation for global developments, including formulation cards, manufacturing instructions, raw material specifications, finished product specifications and technical transfer documents.
Maintain strong awareness of scientific literature, emerging technologies, ingredient trends, regulatory developments and competitive activity to inform work progression, technical problem solving and future innovation opportunities.
Translate relevant knowledge into practical recommendations and support capability building by training self and others in new technologies and ways of working.
Establish, improve and maintain product development SOPs, technical guidance documents and best-practice tools to strengthen consistency, compliance and efficiency across R&D workflows. Support adoption of standardized ways of working for formulation development, testing, documentation, technical transfer and launch readiness.