Director, Product Development

Location: New York, NY (Hybrid, 4x Week In-Office)
Reporting to: VP Product Development
Department: Product Development 
Salary: $105,000 - $150,000

Bubble is on a mission to democratize clinical prestige skincare: dermatologist-developed, vegan formulas that are clinically serious and genuinely accessible, now stocked in roughly 18,000 doors across Target, Walmart, Ulta, and CVS. We want a Director of Product Development who turns a brief into a finished product on shelf: fast, on margin, and good enough that it earns its place in the routine and stays there.

You own new product development from first concept to retail launch across core, treatment, OTC, and the adjacent categories we're building into next. You drive formulation, packaging, testing, scale-up, and commercialization, and you keep the existing portfolio compliant, current, and selling. This is a builder's seat. You redirect a formula on paper, hold a lab to its timeline, and move a dozen projects at once without losing the detail that makes a Bubble product feel like a Bubble product. You are the connective tissue between Marketing, R&D, Regulatory, Operations, Supply Chain, and every manufacturing partner we work with.

New product development

• Own every phase of NPD from concept to launch across core, treatment, OTC, and new adjacent categories. You write the brief, set the timeline, and make the call on what ships.

• Drive the labs instead of waiting on them. Set direction, run formulation reviews, and hold external partners to the schedule and the standard.

• Find what’s next in consumer insight, derm feedback, social listening, competitive teardowns, and emerging ingredient science.

• Build the technical story behind every launch: proprietary blends, substantiated actives, and defensible IP.

• Run the full testing slate across stability, compatibility, specifications, safety, and clinical and consumer efficacy.

• Solve the hard problems when stability, compatibility, or scale-up breaks. You lead the taskforce, find root cause, and ship the fix.

• Keep every formula compliant and on-standard by reviewing ingredient lists, holding the line on Bubble’s vegan formulation standards, and partnering tightly with Regulatory and Quality.

• Lead post-mortems and own reformulation/changes related to customer feedback.

Existing portfolio

• Keep the line strong by updating or replacing formulas as the market and regulations move.

• Engineer the cost out through fast formula modifications that protect margin and open new markets.

Partners, cost & cross-functional work

• Own the partner bench of contract manufacturers, formulation labs, packaging and raw-material suppliers, and grow the relationships that matter most.

• Protect the margin by managing COGS through development and finding cost wins that never cheapen the product.

• Lead the communication on briefs, formula feedback, packaging, copy and claims, artwork, and regulatory deliverables.

• Show up where launches get won in retailer reviews, key customer meetings, and pipeline updates to leadership.

• Level up the team by teaching cross-functional partners how product development actually works.

Required

• 9+ years in beauty product development across multiple categories (skincare and OTC at minimum; SPF, masks, lip, or other adjacencies a plus), taking projects through the full formula and packaging cycle.

• Hands-on formulation skills. You redirect a chemistry on paper instead of routing it to a lab and hoping.

• Deep command of ingredients, claims substantiation, testing, and regulatory requirements.

• Sharp financial instincts. You manage COGS and protect margin without being asked.

• A track record of owning many projects at once and landing every one on time.

• Bachelor's in Chemistry, Cosmetic Science, or a related field.

Bonus points

• OTC and international development and regulatory experience.

• You've helped scale a high-growth beauty brand.

• A live network of formulation, packaging, and manufacturing partners.

• MBA or an advanced scientific degree.

• Launches that land on time, on budget, and on margin.

• Innovation revenue targets, hit.

• Speed-to-market that gets faster release over release.

• Launch success and retailer acceptance that hold strong.

• Gross margin gains from smarter product and packaging.

• A real, stocked three-year pipeline sitting behind the next launch.

• Based in New York, in-office, partnering with cross-functional teams every day. Expect domestic and international travel up to roughly 20% to labs, manufacturers, and suppliers. Reports to the VP, Product Development.

Clinically serious, broadly accessible, built to last. If you want your formulas in the hands of millions and the speed of a brand that actually ships, this is the seat.