Senior Project Scientist, Wellbeing Collective

Join us as S enior Project Scientist, Wellbeing Collective Location: Trumbull, CT Terms & Conditions: Full time, International assignment is not available for this role and relocation for local and international candidates is not provided ABOUT UNILEVER With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. WHO ARE WE? We are the Global Wellbeing team focused on one of Unilever’s largest growth opportunities – the €140bn Wellbeing space defined by Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements (VMS). OUR BUSINESS: Unilever’s Wellbeing Collective Group (WBC) holds the company’s health and wellness brands and the portfolio of brands that includes Liquid IV, Nutrafol, Olly, SmartyPants, Onnit, and Grüns. Each brand is completely unique and focused on giving consumers superior experiences within their respective spaces and target segments. We are committed to continuing to grow this strategic business for Unilever by leveraging the full strength of Unilever’s capabilities and expanding the reach of our portfolio internationally. We work in an agile, fast-moving environment, collaboratively within the team and with our Unilever colleagues around the world. We work in a project-based, networked way where everyone needs to be able to take a step back and think strategically, as well as roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, to be entrepreneurial and experiment, as well as bring in the best of Unilever and work the structures of a large company, and to take charge and lead, as well as follow and support others. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: The Technical Project Lead for WBC R&D will play a critical role in driving the Wellbeing Collective’s growth ambition by leading end-to-end technical delivery of innovation, new product development and new market entry projects across multiple markets. The role is responsible for translating brand ambition, consumer insights and market requirements into clear technical targets and robust product solutions, ensuring products are designed, developed, validated and launched against agreed business, quality, regulatory and consumer experience requirements. This position requires strong formulation and product development expertise, with responsibility for designing consumer-preferred and technically robust formulas, developing global product chassis, managing technical risks, supporting value improvement initiatives, and enabling scale-up and launch readiness through internal and external partners. The Technical Project Lead will work closely with Brand, Supply Chain, SEAC, Quality, Regulatory, NSI, Analytical, Packaging, CTI, contract laboratories, raw material suppliers and collaborative manufacturers, serving as the R&D representative on cross-functional global teams to ensure timely, compliant and high-quality delivery of project objectives. Act as Technical Project Lead for end-to-end technical delivery of innovation projects across multiple markets, including Canada and Latin America countries.  Independently lead technical workstreams from concept development through formulation, feasibility assessment, scale-up, validation, launch readiness and post launch support, ensuring projects are delivered on time and in line with agreed business, quality, regulatory and consumer requirements. Design and develop global product chassis that can be adapted and rolled out across multiple markets, while balancing local regulatory, ingredient, claims, sensory and manufacturing requirements. Drive reuse of proven technologies and base formulations to enable speed, consistency, scalability and greater business incrementality across regions. Steer innovation pipeline by identifying technically feasible product opportunities, evaluating white spaces, assessing formulation and technology readiness, and translating business needs into actionable R&D programs.  Lead and support value improvement and cost saving initiatives through formula optimization, ingredient harmonization, process simplification, supplier evaluation and manufacturing efficiency improvements. Serve as the global R&D liaison to drive harmonization and adoption of ingredients, processes, formulations and technologies from the US business into international markets. Manage the central R&D lab, including prioritization of lab activities, sample preparation, prototype development, ingredient evaluation, formulation trials, documentation and coordination of lab resources.  Partner with Brand Managers to translate Brand Performance Standards (BPS), consumer insights and business ambition into clear technical targets, product design principles and measurable success criteria. Ensure superior products are designed, developed, validated and measured against agreed performance, sensory, claims, quality and consumer experience requirements. Proactively identify, assess and escalate technical risks across formulation, ingredients, claims, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and supply readiness. Develop practical mitigation plans, recommendations and decision points to support timely management alignment and protect project delivery. Identify, evaluate and manage external contract laboratories, raw material suppliers and technical partners to support product development activities.  Work closely with NSI, Analytical, Packaging and CTI teams to design and execute robust technical validation plans, including claim substantiation, analytical method development, stability studies, packaging trials, sensory studies