Associate Product Manager Jobs

About The Position

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing.
• Experience utilizing project management/timeline or workflow management systems.
• Strong understanding of product commercialization processes, manufacturing readiness, and supply chain coordination.
• Knowledge of FDA cosmetic regulations, MoCRA requirements, claims substantiation, and retailer compliance standards preferred.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Project reporting tools.
• Minimum 4–5 years of project management experience in the beauty, cosmetics, hair care, hair color or personal care industry.
• Experience managing mass and/or prestige beauty product launches required.
• Proven success managing product development timelines of 10–18 months.
• Experience working with contract manufacturers and packaging suppliers.
• Experience supporting launches into major retail channels.
• Experience managing packaging development and packaging change initiatives.
• Strong organizational and project management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership abilities.
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through.
• Self-driven with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with hair color and hair care product development strongly preferred.
• Experience leading cross-functional change-control or ECR processes preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple new product development projects through the entire stage-gate process from concept through commercialization.
• Build and maintain detailed project timelines spanning 10–18 month development cycles.
• Establish critical milestones and ensure adherence to launch schedules.
• Monitor project progress and proactively address risks, delays, and resource constraints.
• Develop mitigation plans and contingency strategies for critical project risks.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with brand objectives alongside PD Director.
• Support prioritization and management of the innovation pipeline across multiple brands and product categories.
• Own the changes for the Engineering Change Request (ECR) process for product, packaging, formula, artwork, component, and supplier changes.
• Schedule, facilitate, and document ECR review meetings.
• Coordinate review and approval activities across all impacted departments.
• Track ECR status, approvals, implementation plans, and completion dates.
• Ensure approved changes are communicated and executed according to established procedures.
• Provide ECR status updates and escalation recommendations to leadership.
• Manage updates and revisions to existing products and packaging.
• Prioritize and coordinate existing product changes alongside new product development initiatives.
• Drive implementation of approved formula, packaging, artwork, supplier, specification, and process changes.
• Ensure all changes comply with stage-gate requirements and change-control procedures.
• Maintain visibility of all active product and packaging change initiatives.
• Coordinate activities across Product Development, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Operations, Quality, Purchasing, and Sales.
• Lead weekly cross-functional project meetings and communicate project status updates to core team.
• Manage action items, deliverables, and accountability across all departments.
• Escalate issues and recommend solutions to the Director of Product Development.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, and project management best practices across cross-functional teams.
• Support development of innovative beauty products across hair color, hair care, styling, and personal care categories.
• Coordinate formulation development, testing, stability programs, and product evaluations alongside the Product & Education Lead.
• Track product samples, approvals, and development revisions.
• Support competitive benchmarking and innovation pipeline initiatives.
• Proactively research, track, and analyze new product launches across the beauty market, identifying key trends, innovations, and competitive insights.
• Monitor emerging ingredient, formulation, packaging, and consumer trends to support innovation strategy.
• Attend supplier presentations, industry events, and trade shows as appropriate to identify new technologies and opportunities.
• Manage packaging development timelines, artwork approvals, and component sourcing.
• Coordinate packaging readiness to support commercialization timelines.
• Ensure packaging components meet quality, regulatory, and retailer requirements.
• Partner with packaging suppliers to support component development, qualification, and timeline execution.
• Coordinate documentation control activities associated with product and packaging changes.
• Ensure specifications, artwork files, BOMs, technical documents, and supporting records are reviewed, approved, and maintained.
• Maintain project documentation, meeting records, approval records, and change-control documentation.
• Partner with documentation control personnel to maintain revision history and document accuracy.
• Ensure accountability and ownership of projects after documentation release and approval.
• Coordinate first production runs and launch preparation activities.
• Monitor inventory planning and launch execution milestones.
• Ensure all commercialization requirements are completed before launch.
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, and Purchasing to ensure manufacturing readiness and successful launch execution.
• Support retailer-specific launch requirements and milestone management.
• Coordinate timelines to meet customer presentation, line review, and launch deadlines.
• Collaborate with Sales and Marketing teams to support retailer launch strategies.
• Support retailer presentations, customer meetings, and retailer-exclusive development initiatives as needed.
• Coordinate required product testing, claims support, and documentation alongside Product & Education Lead.
• Partner with Regulatory Affairs to ensure compliance with domestic and international requirements.
• Support compliance with FDA, MoCRA, retailer, and applicable international regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate activities with contract manufacturers, packaging suppliers, testing laboratories, and external development partners.
• Track supplier deliverables and timelines to support project milestones.
• Support supplier evaluations and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain project management systems, Microsoft Project Management timelines and documentation.
• Prepare project status reports, agendas, and updates.
• Track key project metrics and identify opportunities for process improvement.
• Develop and maintain project dashboards, timelines, and launch tracking tools.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives within Product Development.