Category Technical Lead - OTC

Welcome to Haleon. We’re a purpose-driven, world-class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we’ve grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity.

Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science.

Now it’s time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance-focused culture.

About the role

The Category Technical Lead – OTC is accountable for end‑to‑end technical lifecycle strategy, execution and technical performance across formulation and packaging for the Operating Unit to enable growth, margin, cash and stewardship. The role is mission‑critical in ensuring technical readiness, compliant supply, robust innovation delivery, and sustainable cost competitiveness.

This role acts as the single OU technical integrator, connecting Category strategy, Innovation, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Packaging, Site Technical, and external manufacturing partners (CMOs/CDMOs). It ensures that technical decisions are aligned to business strategy, regulatory requirements (eg trusted ingredients, spec management), and long‑term supply resilience, including sourcing decisions while enabling speed to market and margin delivery.

Role responsibilities

End‑to‑End Technical Lifecycle Ownership

• Own and execute the OU technical lifecycle plan for OU, covering formulation and packaging across innovation (technical execution), product maintenance, technical transfers, and simplification initiatives.

• Ensure technical readiness, aligning design, manufacturing capability, validation, and supply robustness with category and OU priorities.

• Accountable for technical execution of complex projects, including innovation launches, value engineering, product maintenance, waste reduction, and process optimization initiatives.

• Build highly capable and performing OU and Site Technical Teams ensuring local subject matter expertise, interdependent with global Technical, leveraging global SMEs.

Technical Strategy & Category Enablement

• Partner with Category, R&D, Marketing, and Commercial teams to translate category strategy into executable OU technical roadmaps.

• Lead product, technology, and competitor benchmarking, driving formulation and packaging simplification in line with Design‑to‑Value principles.

• Ensure alignment between Innovation leaders and Category Technical Readiness Leads for disciplined innovation execution and lifecycle management.

• Develop and maintain a documented OU Technical strategy, clearly aligned to OU Business Strategy, Portfolio and category priorities, supply risk and POS outlook.

• Use the strategy to prioritize work, guide stakeholder alignment, and unlock value at pace.

Product Introduction Technical Leadership (Technical Readiness)

• Lead OU technical execution for NPIs and geo‑expansion projects, ensuring on‑time, in‑full delivery with scalable and compliant post‑launch supply.

• Own technical readiness governance deliverables across innovation stages, ensuring readiness for capital investment, sourcing decisions, and manufacturing scale‑up.

• Champion Design‑to‑Value and Design‑for‑Manufacture to deliver robust, cost‑effective formulations and packaging solutions.

Product Lifecycle Management & Technical Stewardship

• Oversee technical maintenance activities, including formulation robustness, process optimization (e.g., BCT, ingredient harmonisation), validation, and technical transfers.

• Lead PLM initiatives focused on complexity reduction (accountable for formulation simplification), margin improvement, and portfolio synergies, ensuring regulatory and quality compliance throughout the product lifecycle.

• Drive technical risk management, including troubleshooting, CAPA effectiveness, and continuous improvement embedded in Quality‑by‑Design principles.

Packaging & Sustainability Leadership

• Provide OU technical leadership for packaging development, qualification, and validation across internal sites and CMOs.

• Drive packaging transformation and sustainability initiatives, including simplification (accountable for pack simplification), efficiency improvements, and delivery of environmental targets.

• Lead packaging value engineering programs with Procurement, sites and suppliers to deliver cost, resilience, and performance improvements.

Network, CMO & Site Technical Integration

• Ensure strong matrix leadership of Site Technical teams, enabling capability build while keeping sites focused on execution excellence.

• Provide technical oversight for CMO/CDMO networks, supporting tiering, technical readiness, and risk mitigation.

• Act as the OU escalation point for complex technical issues, ensuring timely resolution and prevention of recurrence.

Financial & Capital Accountability

• Execute key projects including selection, equipment installations and commissioning independent.

• Accountable for Capex and technical project costs within the region, ensuring value delivery, disciplined investment decisions, and alignment with OU ABP and LRP priorities.

• Deliver sustainable technical savings through value engineering, simplification, and manufacturing transformation programs.

Enterprise‑Level Stakeholder Leadership

• Actively build, maintain, and leverage trusted relationships with OU Commercial GMs, R&D, Quality, Supply Chain, and Global QSC leaders through regular 1:1 engagement, not transactional communication. Participate and co own the Commercial Category strategy.

• Proactively seek stakeholder feedback on collaboration effectiveness and course‑correct behaviours to improve enterprise outcomes.

• Serve as a credible thought partner to Commercial and GMs, shaping decisions rather than reacting to them.

• Ensure active participant of Seamless Technical Community interdependent with global technical, quality and engineering; enabling and maintaining global standards.

Qualifications and skills

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related technical field.

• 10+ years of technical experience in formulation, packaging, manufacturing technologies, validation, technical operations, or PLM within regulated consumer healthcare, pharmaceutical, FMCG, or related environments.

• Strong end-to-end product lifecycle experience across innovation execution, technical transfer, product maintenance, optimization, simplification, and technical readiness.

• Proven ability to lead complex technical programs and resolve technical risks across sites, functions, and external manufacturing partners.

• Strong matrix leadership and stakeholder influence across Quality, R&D, Commercial, Procurement, Manufacturing, Category, and global technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Business, or a related field.

• Operational Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement experience.

• Ability to translate Category and OU strategy into executable technical roadmaps, fact-based recommendations, and clear business narratives.

• Experience making sound decisions in regulated environments while balancing speed, compliance, quality, cost, supply resilience, and long-term technical stewardship.

• Commercial mindset with experience delivering margin improvement, cost savings, capital productivity, or operational outcomes through technical interventions.

• Experience leading global or cross-market technical transformation initiatives.
   

Location: This is a hybrid-based position in Warren, NJ, requiring on-site presence of 3 days per week.

The Salary Range for this role is $141,305 - $194,294 USD + an 18% annual target bonus.

Benefits

Haleon offers a robust Total Reward package that consists of competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits program.  This includes a generous 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement and time off programs including 6 months paid parental leave.  On day one, you are eligible for benefits, including our healthcare programs where the company pays for the majority of your medical coverage for you and your family.  We also offer the opportunity to receive a discretionary bonus based on the achievement of key business performance and other incentive/recognition programs as part of the offering.

 

 

 

Job Posting End Date

2026-08-12

 

 

 

 Equal Opportunities

 

 

Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.

During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees. 

The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.

 

 

 

Please note that if you are a US Licensed Healthcare Professional or Healthcare Professional as defined by the laws of the state issuing your license, Haleon may be required to capture and report expenses Haleon incurs, on your behalf, in the event you are afforded an interview for employment. This capture of applicable transfers of value is necessary to ensure Haleon’s compliance to all federal and state US Transparency requirements.

 

 

 

Accommodation Requests

If you require a reasonable accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include the following in your email: 

Use subject line: ‘Haleon Careers: Job Accommodation Request’ 

Your Name and contact information 

Requisition ID and Job Title you are interested in 

Location of Requisition (city/state or province/country) 

Description of specific accommodation you are requesting 

Please note: Resumes, CVs, or other requests outside of accommodation support submitted to this email box will not be accepted.

 

 

 

Note to candidates

The Haleon recruitment team will contact you using a Haleon email account (@haleon.com). If you are not sure whether the email you received is from Haleon, please get in touch.