Job Title: Fragrance Program Manager
Location: Port Sunlight R&D
Work Level: 2A
Want to Change The World?
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty, Personal and Home Care products selling in over 190 countries and used by 3.7 billion consumers every day. Unilever has more than 400 brands used in homes around the world, including Dove, Sure, TRESemmé, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Comfort, Persil and Surf. As one of the world’s largest users of fragrances, we recognise that creating exceptional fragrances is at the heart of delivering extraordinary consumer experiences and driving desire at scale.
To achieve our ambition, Unilever Fragrance House (UFH) is undertaking a global fragrance transformation, leveraging expert inhouse fragrance teams to craft unmissably superior fragrances for our Personal Care, Beauty & Wellbeing and Home Care Business Groups.
Job Purpose
This role is the Port Sunlight (PSL) Hub Program Manager within UFH, accountable for delivering all activities required to progress fragrance creation through to final submission readiness, ensuring effective coordination, prioritisation and execution of all R&D activities within the PSL Hub to enable successful program delivery, acting as a central point within PSL to ensure fragrance oils, applications and evaluations are delivered on-time-in-full (OTIF) for submission.
We are seeking a candidate with experience of working across diverse teams with excellent written and verbal communication skills. You will bring an organised approach, clear and accurate record keeping, experience of digital data capture and tracking, along with a good understanding of stock management for highly complex fragrance ingredients. Working collaboratively with UFH Perfumers and Evaluators as well as the three Business Group Fragrance teams, you will play a critical role in ensuring programme flow, removing bottlenecks and maintaining pace and quality to deliver superior, affordable and sustainable fragrances to submission. We are seeking a candidate with experience of working across diverse teams with excellent written and verbal communication skills. You will bring an organised approach, clear and accurate record keeping, experience of digital data capture and tracking, along with a good understanding of stock management for highly complex fragrance ingredients. You will be highly motivated to bring innovation to life and see new fragrances in the market to delight our consumers.
We are looking for a team player with innovation project management experience who can lead a complex portfolio within the UFH programme. You will have a hands-on approach to managing a broad range of activities within the fragrance development process, such as the coordination of product and fragrance samples for consumer testing and evaluation, prioritisation of application and evaluation work to deliver to the programme and line management of a laboratory team. You will have an interest in data management and will work collaboratively with the fragrance digital team to establish processes to effectively capture, analyse and visualise data.
What Will Your Main Responsibilities Be
• Lead and coordinate the programme of projects and activities delivering to the fragrance creation programme within Unilever R&D Port Sunlight ensuring deliverables are met on time and in full.
• Utilise project management tools and best practises to aid project delivery and efficiently update global stakeholders across Business Groups and the central UFH team.
• Utilise all digital tools and trackers giving strong clear inputs to communicate clearly progress and requirements to the UFH leadership team..
• clearly communicate project timelines and constraints to the CTI team; collaborate with the team to ensure OTIF delivery of samples for consumer testing.
• Demonstrate problem solving skills to handle issues presented while working with multiple Business Groups and Categories. Fully adopt new digital tools and data management approaches to speed project delivery, enhance risk-based decision making and deliver consumer insights.
• Develop cross functional project team culture and shared deliverables, magnifying the power of people to deliver effective results.
• Management responsibility for 2-3 WL1 direct reports; define their workplans and guide their professional and personal development.
What You Will Need To Succeed
We are seeking a candidate with strong organisation and communication skills who wants the opportunity to help shape the future of fragrance development in Unilever in this exciting start-up mode. The successful candidate should be curious, have excellent problem-solving skills and be able to work closely with teams from multiple cultures, business backgrounds and across time zones. Team working, a strong passion for fragrance and the ability to identify and implement improvements to ways-of-working are essential.
Experiences & Qualifications
• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in a science or engineering field.
• Previous project management roles and experience of leading complex/global projects.
• Formulation and/or fragrance development project experience.
• Proven track record of delivery in challenging circumstances.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and ability to inspire, manage and develop teams.
• Ability to deliver through others in a cross-functional global network, where you do not have line management or category experience/relationships to rely on.
• Stakeholder management and delivering to senior leadership teams.
• Developed data management skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
NOTES
What we offer
Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.
Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).
Relocation to the UK
Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree or higher in a science or engineering field
- Previous project management experience leading complex/global projects
- Formulation and/or fragrance development project experience
- Experience with digital data capture, trackers and data management
- Understanding of stock management for complex fragrance ingredients
- Proven track record of delivery in challenging circumstances
- Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management skills
- Experience managing and developing a small laboratory/team (line management)
- Strong interpersonal and written/verbal communication skills
Unilever Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Unilever and has not been reviewed or approved by Unilever.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, spanning medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and occupational health support alongside a 24/7 employee assistance program. Wellbeing offerings such as health checks, resilience tools, and counseling support the perceived depth of health-related benefits.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support includes a 401(k) match that reaches up to 5% of base salary, strengthening the overall value of the package. Share and savings options are also referenced as part of longer-term financial support beyond salary.
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Flexible Benefits — Benefits customization is enabled through tools such as a “My Reward” system and a “Benefits Envelope” that allows employees to personalize selections. Flexible working approaches are also associated with improved overall satisfaction, reinforcing perceived choice and adaptability in the total rewards offering.
Unilever Insights
What We Do
Be part of the world’s most successful, purpose-led business. Work with brands that are well-loved around the world, that improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We promote innovation, big and small, to make our business win and grow; and we believe in business as a force for good. Unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas and disrupt processes; use your energy to make this happen. Our brilliant business leaders and colleagues provide mentorship and inspiration, so you can be at your best. Our portfolio ranges from nutritionally balanced foods to indulgent ice creams, affordable soaps, luxurious shampoos and everyday household care products. We produce world-leading brands including Lipton, Knorr, Dove, Axe, Hellmann’s and Omo, alongside trusted local names and innovative-forward thinking brands like Ben & Jerry’s, The Dollar Shave Club and Dermalogica. Every individual here can bring their purpose to life through their work. Join us and you’ll be surrounded by inspiring leaders and supportive peers. Among them, you’ll channel your purpose, bring fresh ideas to the table, and simply be you. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you.
