R&D & Regulatory Affairs Manager

Job Purpose

Product Development and Innovation

• Develop and modify formulations against approved briefs, brand positioning, consumer needs, cost targets, and market requirements.
• Manage the R&D pipeline from brief and feasibility through prototypes, testing, approval, scale-up, and launch.
• Lead reformulation, value engineering, and continuous product improvement without compromising safety, quality, performance, or registration status.
• Apply expertise in ingredients, preservation, compatibility, processing, sensory performance, and foreseeable product risks.

Regulatory and Compliance

• Monitor cosmetic regulations in the UAE, KSA, and other target markets and translate changes into actions for R&D, Marketing, QA/QC, and Supply Chain.
• Assess formulas, ingredients, labels, artwork, and claims for regulatory and scientific acceptability.
• Own product registration dossiers, submissions, renewals, variations, authority queries, and market-by-market compliance tracking.
• Coordinate Halal and COSMOS certification compliance, documentation, renewals, audit evidence, and assigned corrective actions.
• Ensure claims are supported by scientific, stability, safety, or performance evidence throughout the product lifecycle.

Safety, Testing, and Technical Qualification

• Define stability, packaging compatibility, challenge or microbiological, safety, and efficacy testing plans based on product and market risk.
• Interpret results, investigate adverse trends, and recommend scientifically justified shelf life, storage conditions, and specifications.
• Define technical requirements for ingredients and packaging and assess suitability, compatibility, sustainability, and regulatory status.
• Partner with QA/QC and Procurement on supplier and material qualification while maintaining technical specifications and change control.

Scale-Up and Manufacturing Support

• Plan and supervise pilot and commercial trials and translate laboratory formulas into robust, repeatable manufacturing processes.
• Define manufacturing instructions, critical process parameters, in-process controls, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead technical troubleshooting and complete formal handover to Production and QA/QC while preserving QA/QC independence over batch release.

Documentation and External Projects

• Control master formulas, specifications, development history, raw-material data, samples, test reports, and product information files.
• Protect formulation know-how, confidential information, and assigned intellectual property, including technical packages for contract-manufacturing clients.
• Govern external laboratories, consultants, contract clients, and development partners against agreed briefs, samples, changes, and deliverables.

Complaints and Team Leadership

• Assess complaints and quality events for formulation, ingredient, safety, claims, or regulatory implications and provide technical conclusions.
• Support investigations, trend review, CAPA, recall assessments, and market-withdrawal decisions with formulation and regulatory input.
• Manage concurrent NPD, reformulation, and contract-manufacturing projects against timeline, scope, cost, MOQ, capacity, and margin expectations.
• Set objectives, allocate workload, review technical output, coach team members, and build specialist and succession capability.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in cosmetic science, chemistry, pharmacy, or a closely related discipline.
• Typically 7–10 years of cosmetic or personal-care R&D experience, including formulation, scale-up, and regulatory exposure.
• At least 2–3 years leading people or major projects.
• Experience with stability, compatibility, microbiological or challenge testing, technical dossiers, claims support, and product registration in the UAE and/or KSA.
• Halal and/or COSMOS compliance, certification, or audit coordination experience is strongly preferred.
• Strong project management, scientific writing, data interpretation, stakeholder management, and commercial judgment.

Decision Rights and Interfaces