Full-Time

Senior Director

Formulation Sales

Debut

Debut

51-200 employees

Biotech startup selling climate-positive, people-positive solutions

Compensation Overview

$170k - $210k/yr

San Diego, CA, USA

Hybrid

San Diego-based preferred; remote may be considered for the right candidate. Travel up to 50% is required.

Category
Sales & Account Management (1)
Required Skills
Lead Generation

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Requirements
  • Minimum of 8-10 years in business development, lead generation, or formulation sales within the beauty industry, with deep, established relationships across prestige and masstige skincare brands.
  • A proven track record of building and converting a pipeline of large, complex opportunities into awarded business.
  • Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles and advancing several strategic projects simultaneously.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives, both internally and with customer organizations.
  • Established, active network of relationships with skincare brand founders, research and development leaders, and product development teams at prestige and masstige brands, with a demonstrated ability to activate that network to generate near-term pipeline.
  • Willingness to travel up to 50% for customer meetings and industry events.
  • Ability to perform the essential physical functions of the position, with reasonable accommodations available where applicable.
  • Compliance with the company personal protective equipment policy in an industrial environment.
  • Successful completion of a pre-employment background check.
Responsibilities
  • Own and grow relationships with prestige and masstige skincare brand partners, serving as the senior commercial point of contact for key accounts.
  • Drive heavy outbound prospecting and pipeline generation for an assigned customer segment or territory in alignment with the commercial strategy and revenue goals.
  • Carry an elevated revenue target and take ultimate accountability for pipeline health, forecast accuracy, and conversion of strategic opportunities.
  • Own the full commercial process for strategic accounts, from executive-level first contact through qualification, proposal, negotiation, project award, and purchase order.
  • Build and maintain relationships with senior decision makers across research and development, product development, marketing, and executive leadership within major beauty organizations.
  • Leverage established relationships with prestige and masstige skincare brands to generate high-value opportunities for advanced formulations and the biotechnology platform.
  • Provide input and guidance to leadership on pricing and contract structures based on market and customer intelligence.
  • Execute complex deal negotiations for large or multi-year partnerships within established pricing frameworks.
  • Represent the company's competitive positioning at the executive level and articulate its value to win new formulation business, including custom and white-label business.
  • Maintain knowledge of product development timelines and formulation planning cycles to align strategic outreach with customer launch calendars.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with research and development, operations, and finance to ensure strategic opportunities are properly resourced and delivered.
  • Maintain disciplined pipeline management and reporting from initial engagement through commercialization.
Desired Qualifications
  • San Diego-based location is preferred; remote work may be considered for the right candidate.
  • Experience with prestige and masstige skincare brands and deep, established relationships across those brands.

Debut Biotech develops and sells biotechnology solutions that are designed to be climate positive and people positive, helping clients in industries like pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and environmental conservation. Its products apply biological processes and systems to create environmentally friendly and socially beneficial outcomes, which are then sold to other businesses. Unlike typical biotech firms, Debut positions itself as an Unconventional Innovation Lab that focuses on practical, environmentally and socially positive results rather than just technical breakthroughs. The company’s goal is to combine scientific expertise with a values-driven approach to deliver biotech solutions that benefit the environment, people, and society while generating revenue from client engagements.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Late Stage VC

Total Funding

$86.2M

Headquarters

San Diego, California

Founded

2019

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • August 2025 Debut raised $20 million from Fine Structure Ventures and L’Oréal’s Bold.
  • May 27, 2026 Natura partnership expands Debut’s longevity ingredient pipeline into Latin America.
  • May 6, 2026 Oterra deal targets a natural Red 40 alternative across food and beverage.

What critics are saying

  • Natura’s 2027 launch depends on clinical validation; failure kills that revenue stream.
  • Oterra’s Red 40 alternative still needs FDA approval and multi-year commercialization.
  • If Debut’s clinical claims disappoint, partners will bypass its platform for incumbents.

What makes Debut unique

  • Debut pairs AI ingredient discovery with skin genomics and precision biomanufacturing.
  • January 27, 2026 DermCeutical EDL launched with clinical skin-tightening claims.
  • July 2024 Defense Department selected Debut for a possible $100 million biomanufacturing award.

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Benefits

Flexible Work Hours

Hybrid Work Options

Remote Work Options

Health Insurance

401(k) Retirement Plan

401(k) Company Match

Paid Vacation

Paid Holidays

PTO/vacation

Flexible Work Hours

Wellness Program

Mental Health Support

Conference Attendance Budget

Professional Development Budget

Stock Options

Company Equity

Phone/Internet Stipend

Home Office Stipend

Family Planning Benefits

Fertility Treatment Support

Parental Leave

Adoption Assistance

Childcare Support

Relocation Assistance

Employee Referral Bonus

Tuition Reimbursement

Professional Certification Support

Mentorship Program

Gym Membership

Wellness Program

Meal Benefits

Health Savings Account/Flexible Spending Account

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

5%

1 year growth

4%

2 year growth

7%
Longevity.Technology
Jul 21st, 2026
AI meets Amazon in longevity beauty push.

AI meets Amazon in longevity beauty push. Debut and Natura team up to develop an AI-discovered skin longevity ingredient that could reach consumers as early as 2027. What if discovering tomorrow's skincare ingredient no longer took decades (or centuries), but only a few days? That is the provocative claim sitting at the core of a new partnership between biotech company Debut and Brazilian beauty giant Natura. Debut says its AI platform can sift through molecular possibilities at a speed that would traditionally have taken an estimated 125,000 years of conventional screening [1]. The pace of biotechnology is changing. If that acceleration continues, the more interesting question is whether Longevity is approaching a tipping point where entirely new classes of biotech-derived longevity ingredients begin arriving faster than consumers or regulators have ever experienced before. At the same time, another long-standing divide may be disappearing. For years, beauty has often framed science and nature as opposing forces: laboratory innovation on one side, botanical ingredients on the other. This latest collaboration suggests that distinction may be becoming obsolete. Most tellingly, the companies aren't talking about "anti-aging;" they're specifically talking about longevity. Those three shifts - speed, convergence and language - may ultimately prove more significant than any single skincare product. An AI search meets 25 years of Amazon expertise. Debut and Natura announced this week a strategic partnership to commercialize an AI-discovered longevity ingredient complex for the Latin American market. Pending successful clinical validation, products featuring the ingredient could launch as early as 2027. The collaboration pairs two very different forms of expertise. Debut brings a biotechnology platform that uses AI to identify promising new ingredients. Natura contributes more than two decades of experience working with bioactive plants sourced through partnerships with communities across the Amazon rainforest. Rather than replacing natural ingredients with synthetic ones, the companies are combining them. Debut's newly discovered compounds will be paired with Natura's Amazonian botanicals to create a longevity-focused ingredient complex designed to support healthier skin as it ages. It represents less of a collision between technology and nature than a conversation between the two. From finding needles to mapping the haystack. Traditional ingredient discovery can feel a bit like searching for a single needle hidden inside countless haystacks. Scientists test one possibility after another, slowly narrowing the field before moving promising candidates into laboratory studies. AI changes that process. Instead of examining possibilities one at a time, Debut's platform can computationally evaluate up to 96 billion molecular combinations, identifying which ones appear most likely to have measurable biological effects before researchers begin validating them in the lab. The company says that work, estimated to take 125,000 years using conventional screening, can now happen in days. The laboratory work doesn't disappear. Clinical validation still comes next. But if AI can dramatically shorten the discovery phase, researchers can spend more time answering the question that ultimately matters: does the ingredient actually work? "This collaboration represents a new frontier in beauty innovation where advanced science and nature work in synergy to deliver a new standard of clinically validated performance," said Dr Joshua Britton, founder and CEO of Debut. "By combining genomics-enabled molecular design with Natura's unique heritage in botanical actives from the Amazon, we are unlocking new possibilities for product innovation." Nature isn't being replaced; it's being upgraded. For Natura, the partnership builds on a strategy that began long before AI entered the beauty conversation. The company already works with 46 socio-biodiverse bioactives sourced from the Amazon, including ingredients such as Ucuuba, known for its moisturizing properties, and Tukumã, naturally rich in hyaluronic acid. These ingredients have become central to Natura's identity, linking biodiversity with commercial skincare while supporting communities involved in sustainable harvesting. The partnership with Debut doesn't abandon that philosophy. Instead, it adds another layer. Rather than asking consumers to choose between "natural" or "scientific," the companies are proposing something that increasingly feels like the future of longevity innovation: precision biology inspired by nature. Manuel Rios Krauss, the Chief R&D and Innovation Officer at Natura, said that well-being has always been at the core of the company's mission. He explained that they are now taking a major step forward by evolving this fundamental essence toward science-backed, functional well-being, noting that this specific collaboration serves as a vital component of their ongoing journey into longevity. "We are combining three powerful things: nature's billions of years of wisdom, the traditional knowledge of our communities, and the latest in technology and AI. We are using modern science alongside our roots to deliver real, effective results for our customers," he added. Why longevity is replacing anti-aging. Skincare promised to erase wrinkles, smooth fine lines or make people appear younger. The focus was largely cosmetic. Longevity takes a different approach. Instead of asking how skin can look younger, it asks how skin can remain healthier and more resilient over time by addressing some of the biological processes associated with aging. It's a subtle distinction, but an important one. The goal moves away from chasing youth and toward supporting healthier aging. The change in vocabulary also reflects changing consumer expectations. People are becoming more interested in understanding how products are developed, validated and connected to biology. If successful, Debut and Natura's partnership won't simply introduce another skincare ingredient. It could become part of a wider transition in which beauty begins borrowing both the language and the scientific ambition of longevity research. In that sense, the promise of discovering molecules in days is only one piece of the story. The larger shift is that AI may accelerate innovation without replacing nature, biotechnology may blur the old divide between "clean" and "scientific" beauty, and longevity may finally replace anti-aging as the industry's defining idea. If those three trends continue to converge, the next generation of beauty products will increasingly be judged by how well they support healthier aging, bringing longevity science out of the lab and into everyday life.

MLMInfoPages
May 29th, 2026
Natura teams up with AI firm to revolutionize beauty and longevity.

Natura teams up with AI firm to revolutionize beauty and longevity. Natura partners with Debut to commercialize an AI-based longevity ingredient, reshaping beauty innovation. Natura enters strategic alliance with AI biotechnology leader. Natura has announced a significant partnership with Debut, a pioneering AI-driven biotechnology company in the beauty sector. This collaboration aims to bring to market a unique ingredient complex focused on longevity, leveraging advanced technology and Natura's extensive knowledge of Amazonian biodiversity. Combining nature with advanced technology. The partnership is designed to integrate Debut's proprietary AI capabilities with Natura's existing portfolio of bioactive ingredients derived from the Amazon Rainforest. The goal is to create a product that promises exceptional performance in combating skin aging, an issue increasingly relevant to beauty consumers. The new longevity complex is expected to emerge in the market as early as 2027, pending successful clinical validation of its efficacy. Notably, the collaboration highlights a growing trend in the beauty industry where science and natural ingredients are increasingly intertwined. "This collaboration represents a new frontier in beauty innovation where advanced science and nature work in synergy," said Joshua Britton, PhD, Debut Founder and CEO. Unleashing the Power of AI in Beauty. Debut's innovative platform has the capability to analyze an astonishing 96 billion molecular combinations to identify those with a measurable biological impact. In contrast, Natura currently employs 46 different socio-biodiversity bioactives to create high-performance cosmetics. The synergy expected from this partnership could lead to groundbreaking advancements in beauty formulations that balance cutting-edge biotech with natural ingredients. For consumers, this means potentially effective products that address aging concerns more powerfully than ever before. Voices from the leadership. "At Natura, well-being has always been at our core," explained Manuel Rios Krauss, Natura's Chief R&D and Innovation Officer. "This collaboration is a key part of our journey into longevity, combining nature's wisdom, community knowledge, and modern technological advances." This sentiment reflects a larger industry movement towards creating products that not only appeal to modern consumers but also respect the environment and traditional practices. What this means for the industry. The partnership between Natura and Debut is significant for several reasons. First, it reinforces the importance of innovation in the beauty sector, particularly as demand grows for products that are both effective and sustainable. This intersection of technology and nature may set new benchmarks for product quality. Moreover, the anticipated longevity complex could appeal to health-conscious consumers who are increasingly interested in products that contribute to their overall well-being. As the market for anti-aging solutions expands, brands that effectively harness AI technology may gain a competitive edge. Looking ahead. As this collaboration progresses, industry watchers should keep an eye on how clinical validation unfolds and the subsequent consumer response. The potential introduction of the longevity complex in 2027 could reshape beauty product expectations and set a new standard in the market. In a landscape where consumers are ever more discerning about the efficacy and sourcing of their beauty products, this partnership exemplifies a promising future for both companies - and the industry at large. About Natura. Natura is a Brazilian MLM company founded in 1969, specializing in cosmetics, skincare, and personal care products. With a trust score of 50/100, Natura operates on a network marketing model, allowing...

PR Newswire
Jan 27th, 2026
Debut unveils biotech active delivering in-office skin tightening results in topical skincare

Debut, a biotech beauty company, has launched DermCeutical EDL™, a topical ingredient it claims delivers professional-grade skin tightening results. Developed using AI, skin genomics and biotechnology, the ingredient activates cellular pathways typically targeted by in-office treatments. In a 12-week clinical study, DermCeutical EDL™ showed 100% fine-line improvement rate and 73% improvement in skin sagging compared to placebo. The ingredient increased elastin production six-fold and rejuvenated aged cells by 31%, whilst improving texture, luminosity and fine lines. The bioactive works by activating dermal fibroblasts to boost elastin production whilst reducing cellular stress. CEO Joshua Britton said the technology allows consumers to achieve visible results at home without expensive in-office treatments. DermCeutical EDL™ joins Debut's growing portfolio of biotech skincare actives.

Cosmetics & Toiletries
Jan 12th, 2026
Debut Appoints Derek Wanner as Chief Commercial Officer to Accelerate Biotech-Powered Beauty Innovation

Debut appoints Derek Wanner as Chief commercial officer to accelerate biotech-powered beauty innovation. Beauty biotech specialist Debut has announced the appointment of Derek Wanner as chief commercial officer (CCO). Debut Beauty biotech specialist Debut has announced the appointment of Derek Wanner as chief commercial officer (CCO). Wanner joins Debut from Mana Products, a global manufacturer of beauty formulations, where he held senior commercial leadership roles and helped scale innovation across the global beauty industry. In his new role, Wanner will lead the growth of Debut's formulation business, expand strategic partnerships and collaborate with industry-leading beauty brands to bring cutting-edge, science-backed products to market faster. "Derek brings a rare combination of commercial rigor, formulation expertise, and deep industry relationships," said Joshua Britton, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Debut. "As demand accelerates for high-performance, clinically proven products, his leadership will be instrumental in scaling our formulation business and helping partners unlock the full power of biotechnology." Prior to Debut, Wanner served as Chief Growth Officer at Mana Products, where he helped propel some of the world's most influential beauty brands by expanding product development capabilities and supporting the growth of a diverse global portfolio. That experience now positions him to further Debut's mission of leveraging biotechnology as a competitive advantage across the beauty ecosystem. "What drew me to Debut is its ability to pair world-class biotechnology with a clear path to commercialization," said Wanner. "Debut's science-first approach represents a fundamental shift in how beauty formulations are created - from discovering novel, high-performing ingredients to enabling real personalization powered by AI and genomics. I'm excited to help scale these innovations and shape the future of beauty." Wanner's appointment comes as Debut builds on strong market momentum, expands its global commercial and biomanufacturing footprint, and deepens collaborations across the beauty industry.

PR Newswire
Aug 26th, 2025
Debut Raises $20M to Fast-track AI Ingredient Discovery in Skin Longevity and Grow its Formulation Business in the US and Asia

/PRNewswire/ -- Debut, the biotech beauty leader, has secured $20M in investment to accelerate the expansion of its proprietary, AI-based ingredient discovery...