Senior Director, Prestige Hair Care & Styling R&D

Position Title: Senior Director, Prestige Hair Care & Styling R&D

Location: Morris Plains, New Jersey

Reports to: Vice President, R&D Hair Care, Styling & Texturizing & Global Testing

Direct Reports: 4 direct with 9-12 on the team

Scope / Brands: Global Nioxin, Global Sebastian, Global Briogeo

This position is based in Morris Plains, NJ;
must be onsite at least3 days per week

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Wella Company is seeking an exceptional Senior Director, Prestige Hair Care & Styling R&D to lead global innovation strategy, product development, and technical leadership across Nioxin, Sebastian, and Briogeo.

This role carries end-to-end accountability for shaping and delivering the global innovation agenda across three distinct prestige brands spanning scalp health, hair care, and styling. The successful candidate will own R&D strategy, portfolio direction, pipeline delivery, and commercialization while serving as a key business leader influencing brand growth, consumer relevance, and enterprise value creation.

This leader will translate deep consumer understanding, professional insights, emerging technologies, and market trends into differentiated innovation platforms and commercially successful products that strengthen brand equity and drive growth globally.

Success in this role requires a rare combination of technical depth, business acumen, consumer obsession, and leadership capability. The ideal candidate combines a proven track record of delivering innovation within a large global CPG organization with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, inspire teams, navigate complexity, and lead through ambiguity.

As Senior Director, Prestige Hair Care & Styling R&D, you will lead across five core areas of accountability

• Define and deliver global R&D strategy, innovation roadmaps, and end-to-end portfolio execution for Nioxin, Sebastian, and Briogeo.
• Lead technical development across formulation, packaging, claims, testing strategy, and commercialization readiness for innovation, base business, and lifecycle initiatives.
• Build, coach, and develop a high-performing organization of direct reports while serving as an influential culture and site leader across the broader Morris Plains and NY GTS R&D community.
• Act as a strategic thought partner to senior cross-functional leaders across Marketing, Commercial, Education, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and external partners to shape portfolio decisions and business strategy.
• Establish and grow a world-class external innovation ecosystem that accelerates speed, capability building, and access to emerging technologies and partnerships.
• This individual will also have the potential to develop into the site and culture leader for the Morris Plains R&D and NY Global R&D Test Salon community, fostering an inclusive, high-performing environment that reflects Wella’s values and strengthens a One R&D culture across teams, locations, and functions.

Responsibilities also include:

Innovation Strategy & Portfolio Leadership

• Define and execute multi-year innovation strategies and product roadmaps that drive growth, strengthen brand equity, and reinforce leadership positions within prestige hair care and styling.
• Anticipate evolving consumer and professional needs and translate insights into meaningful innovation opportunities, technologies, and experiences.
• Leverage consumer understanding, market trends, competitive intelligence, and scientific advancements to create differentiated pipelines with clear business impact.
• Partner closely with Marketing and Education to develop compelling science stories, claims strategies, demonstrations, and technical narratives that resonate with consumers, stylists, and customers.

Product Development & Technical Leadership

• Lead end-to-end product development from concept through commercialization, ensuring exceptional product performance, quality, safety, manufacturability, and regulatory compliance.
• Provide clear technical leadership and decision-making across projects, balancing consumer desirability, technical feasibility, operational readiness, speed, and investment priorities.

External Innovation & Partnerships

• Build strategic relationships with suppliers, technology partners, contract manufacturers, startups, and academic institutions.
• Ensure strong governance across partnerships including intellectual property, compliance, quality, business continuity, and performance management.

Business Leadership & Enterprise Influence

• Serve as a senior R&D business leader with accountability for influencing portfolio decisions, investment priorities, and innovation strategies across the Prestige business.
• Represent R&D in senior leadership forums with credibility, clarity, and strong executive presence.
• Champion a consumer-first mindset across teams and decisions, ensuring innovations solve meaningful consumer problems and create superior experiences.

Transformation & Operational Excellence

• Drive continuous improvement across R&D processes, governance, and operating models to improve agility, speed, and quality of delivery.
• Simplify complexity and establish scalable ways of working that support future growth.
• Manage budget and resource allocation.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 12+ years of progressive experience leading R&D, innovation, and product development organizations within beauty, personal care, or large global consumer packaged goods companies, including at least 5 years in senior leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success defining innovation strategies and delivering commercially successful global pipelines from concept through launch and scale-up.
• Strong technical foundation across product development including formulation, packaging, claims, testing, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory requirements.
• Exceptional ability to translate consumer insights and unmet needs into differentiated products, technologies, and experiences.
• Proven ability to influence senior cross-functional stakeholders and shape business strategy within complex global organizations.
• Experience leading large, cross-functional initiatives requiring alignment across multiple functions, regions, and external partners.
• Track record of building high-performing teams, developing talent, and fostering inclusive, high-engagement cultures.
• Experience serving as a visible site leader and culture champion beyond direct reporting relationships.
• Outstanding communication, storytelling, and presentation skills with the ability to engage audiences ranging from scientists to executive leadership teams.
• Demonstrated passion for beauty, consumer trends, and the evolving prestige and professional hair categories.
• Experience leading external innovation networks, suppliers, contract manufacturers, and strategic development partners.
• Recognized for enterprise thinking, strong judgment, executive presence, resilience, and the ability to lead effectively through ambiguity and transformation.
• Experience in hair care, styling, scalp care, or adjacent beauty categories preferred;
  experience within prestige, professional, or salon channels strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific, engineering, or related discipline required;
  advanced degree (MBA, MS, or PhD) preferred.
• Global leadership experience and experience building new capabilities, operating models, or innovation processes strongly preferred.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require, expected approximately 20–30%.

We disclose the compensation range for positions in compliance with local law. Actual salaries will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, skills and in comparison to internal incumbents currently in similar roles—pay Range: $210,000 - $250,000 salary per year plus bonus. The range listed is just one component of Wella Company's total rewards package for employees. Other rewards may include annual bonus plan or variable pay, depending on the role. In addition, Wella Company provides a rich variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance, life and disability insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).

NOTICES

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, please email View email address on click.appcast.io. This email account will not respond to inquiries regarding the status of a candidate’s application.

[For CA located postings ONLY]: Qualified Applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

Wella participates in the E-Verify Program to confirm eligibility to work in the United States. Information regarding your rights: Know your rights and Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision.