Senior Director, Global New Products Innovation

About the role

The Senior Director, Global New Products Innovation leads innovation across the Personal Care portfolio, including Orajel, Trojan, First Response, and TAG Brands Zicam, Simply Saline, RepHresh, and Replens. This role is responsible for building and advancing a multi-year innovation pipeline that drives sustainable growth across these businesses while leading the 2030 Oral Care innovation strategy.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of innovation strategies and multi-year pipelines across Personal Care, including Orajel, Trojan, First Response, and TAG Brands, aligned to long-term business goals and growth ambitions.
• Drive the 2030 Oral Care innovation strategy by identifying innovation platforms, whitespace opportunities, scalable growth vectors, and new product initiatives to accelerate business growth.
• Identify and evaluate new product opportunities through strategic analysis, consumer research, market assessment, competitive intelligence, and financial evaluation to determine where to play and how to win.
• Partner closely with R&D and business leaders to translate unmet consumer needs into differentiated product propositions, concepts, claims, packaging strategies, and go-to-market plans.
• Lead end-to-end innovation development from opportunity identification through concept validation, business case development, commercialization, and launch execution.
• Monitor competitive activity, emerging consumer trends, marketplace dynamics, and social listening insights to proactively evolve innovation strategies.
• Lead and inspire cross-functional teams across Brand, R&D, Consumer Insights, Sales, Finance, Operations, and Project Management to successfully execute innovation initiatives.
• Build organizational alignment and secure executive leadership support for innovation priorities, investment decisions, and resource allocation.
• Develop innovation capabilities by coaching, mentoring, and developing high-performing team members while fostering a collaborative, consumer-focused culture.
• Manage the innovation portfolio by balancing near-term launches with long-term pipeline development to support sustainable top- and bottom-line growth.
• Present innovation strategies, business cases, and portfolio recommendations to senior leadership, providing clear, data-driven insights that support strategic decision-making.
• Champion continuous improvement by incorporating post-launch learnings, consumer feedback, and performance metrics into future innovation planning.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required
• 15+ years of progressive experience, including Director-level leadership experience in marketing, innovation, new product development, or general management within consumer packaged goods, healthcare, oral care, or personal care
• Demonstrated success leading innovation strategy and multi-year pipeline development across complex, multi-brand portfolios
• Strong experience translating consumer insights into commercially successful innovation platforms and product launches
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence executive stakeholders in highly matrixed organizations
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical capability, business acumen, and financial decision-making skills
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and storytelling skills with the ability to simplify complex ideas and gain executive alignment
• Demonstrated success developing talent and building high-performing, collaborative teams