Senior Director NA Brand R&D Lead

Salary Range:

$183,750.00 - $265,416.66

All Compensation will be determined commensurate with demonstrated experience.

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You’ve built experience, now use it where bold ideas meet real impact. At Opella, we’re challenging how self-care works for millions of people and need leaders and experts ready to shape what’s next. As a Senior Director NA Brand R&D Lead, you’ll bring your skill, your curiosity and your drive to make health simpler, smarter and more human.

About the job:

• Lead initiatives that advance our brands and strengthen our reputation worldwide.
• Mentor and uplift emerging talent while pushing your own growth and influence.
• Put purpose into practice — embedding sustainability, access and social impact into every decision.
• Model the challenger mindset: question complexity, act with integrity and make things radically simple.
• Help shape a culture that’s ambitious, collaborative and serious about recognition and belonging.
• Strategic thinker who can drive the end-to-end R&D strategy, innovation pipeline, and execution for North America Allergy and Sleep brands by translating science and technology into consumer-focused products, partnering with Marketing, Sales, Regulatory, and Medical to deliver business growth and successful product launches.
• Lead the long-term brand portfolio and innovation roadmap (1–5 years), using consumer insights, scientific expertise, and external partnerships to develop differentiated products, support patent strategy, ensure on-time project execution, and align with sustainability and regulatory priorities.
• Be part of the wider science leadership community that drives and influences our future growth and direction.

Main Responsibilities:

• Be an innovative & creative R&D leader that inspires marketing & commercial with ideas that can be executed. Define R&D strategy for our brands.
• Specifically, lead the R&D innovation pipeline for key growth brands, delivering new products and innovations that meet growth and sales objectives while ensuring consistent execution across the portfolio. Drive a culture of acceleration & simplification through effective decision making and risk taking.
• Drive short-, medium-, and long-term product development projects, including new formulations, claims, clinical studies, packaging innovations, and sustainability initiatives, while accelerating decision-making and execution.
• Partner closely with Marketing, Sales, Consumer Science, and Project Management to develop larger, consumer-driven innovation projects and ensure successful, on-time product launches.
• Develop and execute patent strategies and leverage external technology partnerships to create differentiated products and strengthen the long-term innovation pipeline.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Development, Packaging, Finance, Regulatory, and other key stakeholders to build strong business cases, manage project risks, and deliver high-impact innovation.
• Prioritize and lead base business protection projects to maintain product quality, compliance, and supply continuity while balancing business risk.
• Inspire and lead cross-functional teams by fostering innovation, encouraging bold decision-making, and driving accountability to achieve business and R&D objectives.

About you:

• Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline required; Master's or Ph.D. preferred, with 10+ years of R&D experience leading innovation pipelines and delivering successful product development for consumer health brands.
• Proven experience developing OTC and NDA products, supporting FDA submissions, and managing multiple brands across various regulatory pathways while driving innovation and business growth.
• Strong ability to translate consumer insights into brand strategies, communicate complex science to diverse stakeholders, and influence business decisions through effective storytelling.
• Demonstrated leadership in building and coaching cross-functional technical teams, allocating resources, managing budgets, identifying risks, and driving innovation projects from concept through commercial launch.
• Experience establishing external partnerships with suppliers, research organizations, and key opinion leaders while staying ahead of industry trends to identify new technologies, ingredients, formulations, claims, and sustainable product opportunities.
• Proven ability to lead a diverse innovation portfolio, including business development opportunities, new product development, clinical programs, novel formulation technologies, and sustainability initiatives.
• Strong strategic mindset with experience partnering across R&D, Regulatory, Marketing, Project Management, and Commercial teams to deliver high-impact innovation and long-term portfolio growth.

This is more than the next step in your career, it’s a chance to lead change and help reinvent self-care for the world. If you’re ready to challenge, inspire and deliver impact that matters, we’re ready for you. We are challengers. We are Opella.

Opella values diversity in all its forms and is committed to fostering a workplace where everyone can belong and excel. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.

About Us:

Opella is the self-care challenger with the purest and third-largest portfolio in the Over The Counter (OTC) & Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements (VMS) market globally.  

Our mission is to bring health in people’s hands by making self-care as simple as it should be. For half a billion consumers worldwide – and counting.

At the core of this mission is our 100 loved brands, our 11,000-strong global team, our 13 best-in-class manufacturing sites and 4 specialized science and innovation development centers. Headquartered in France, Opella is the proud maker of many of the world’s most loved brands, including Allegra, Buscopan, Doliprane, Dulcolax, Enterogermina, Essentiale and Mucosolvan.

As a globally certified B Corp company, we are active players in the journey towards healthier people and planet. Find out more about our mission at www.opella.com.