NA R&D Oral Health Lead

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 Principal Scientist, Oral Health R&D is a senior scientific individual contributor in Haleon North America R&D. This role brings deep technical expertise, strong scientific judgment, and cross-functional influence to advance the North America Oral Health pipeline from evidence strategy through claims support. The Principal Scientist shapes study design, interprets data, builds clear scientific narratives, and provides evidence-based recommendations that enable consumer-relevant, regulatory-sound innovation across priority brands.

Role Responsibilities

Scientific Leadership & Strategy

• Set scientific direction for priority NA Oral Health programs by defining evidence needs, shaping hypotheses, and guiding decision-making.
• Develop evidence and claims strategies for the NA Oral Health pipeline, including study plans, key milestones, risks, and dependencies.
• Represent NA R&D in key category forums by translating complex evidence into clear recommendations and decision-ready scientific input.

Technical Expertise & Evidence Generation

• Work as a member of the cross-functional R&D team the end‑to‑end design and execution of clinical, laboratory, and claims‑supporting studies.
• Serve as a leading NA oral care scientific expert by synthesizing internal and external evidence into clear scientific narratives, identifying emerging science, and translating insights into actionable opportunities and defensible claims.
• Maintain fit-for-purpose evidence documentation, including study reports, substantiation files, and decision records, to support internal reviews, audits, and external scrutiny.

Regulatory & Compliance Support

• Partner closely with cross functional partners to support claim substantiation strategies and risk management, ensuring compliance with FDA/FTC/NAD expectations and readiness for challenge, inquiry, or competitive response.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Influence aligned scientific decision-making across Global Category R&D, Medical & Scientific Affairs, Regulatory Affairs, Marketing, Insights, and Supply/Quality by clarifying assumptions, surfacing trade-offs, and providing evidence-based recommendations.

Project & Program Leadership

• Lead priority NA R&D programs with strong ownership of scientific quality, timelines, and deliverables; proactively identify risks, solve problems, and support outcomes from study readouts through claim enablement and launch support.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (PhD, DDS/DMD, MS) in a relevant scientific discipline.
• 8+ years’ experience in R&D within consumer health, oral care, pharmaceutical, or related scientific fields, with demonstrated depth in evidence generation and claims support.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience developing claims and evidence strategies for consumer healthcare/oral care products (including substantiation dossiers and challenge readiness).
• Exceptional scientific communication and stakeholder‑influence skills, including the ability to translate complex evidence into crisp recommendations for senior leaders and cross‑functional decision forums.
• Track record of scientific thought leadership (e.g., publications, conference presentations, standards/working groups, or KOL partnerships) in oral health or adjacent biomedical fields.

Location: This role is based in Warren, New Jersey and follows a hybrid model, requiring an in-office presence of 3 days per week.

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

 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.