Senior Manager - Brand Innovations - FMCG/Beauty

Role Overview:

We are looking for a commercially driven brand leader who can combine consumer obsession, innovation, creative thinking, and operational rigor to build differentiated brands and deliver sustainable business growth. The role will own the end-to-end brand charter across growth strategy, new product development, portfolio management, commercial planning, and integrated brand launches. This is a high-visibility leadership position requiring a combination of strategic thinking, consumer understanding, commercial acumen, creative judgment, and strong cross-functional execution.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Brand Strategy, Growth & P&L:

- Develop and execute medium to long-term growth strategies across a portfolio of beauty and lifestyle brands.

- Build and manage a rolling innovation pipeline covering new launches, extensions, variants, shades, formats, and consumer-led innovations.

- Own brand-level commercial plans, revenue objectives, profitability, and key business metrics.

- Develop pricing, margin, COGS, and promotional strategies in partnership with finance and commercial teams.

- Identify category whitespace, emerging consumer needs, and opportunities for portfolio expansion.

- Lead strategic interventions for underperforming products and portfolios, including renovation, repositioning, rationalization, or transition.

2. Product Development & Innovation:

- Lead the product development process from consumer insight and product brief through formulation, testing, finalization, and launch.

- Develop detailed product briefs covering consumer target, need states, proposition, claims, sensory experience, pricing, and commercial objectives.

- Identify and manage relevant external development, manufacturing, and innovation partners.

- Establish benchmarking frameworks against relevant domestic and international products.

- Drive consumer testing, efficacy validation, and product refinement.

- Ensure products are developed in line with quality, safety, regulatory, and market requirements.

3. Packaging & Brand Experience:

- Lead packaging development across structural, graphic, functional, and communication elements.

- Ensure packaging effectively communicates product benefits, differentiation, and brand identity across digital and physical environments.

- Partner with design and creative teams on packaging architecture, nomenclature, hierarchy, and on-pack communication.

- Develop merchandising and visibility principles for retail and digital environments.

4. Go-To-Market & Brand Communication:

- Define product positioning, consumer proposition, key messaging, claims, and reasons to believe.

- Develop launch frameworks and toolkits for new products and major brand initiatives.

- Partner with marketing, creative, social, influencer, content, and commercial teams to deliver integrated launches.

- Ensure consistent brand storytelling across D2C, marketplaces, retail, and other relevant channels.

- Identify opportunities for expansion into new channels, markets, and consumer segments.

5. Consumer & Market Understanding:

- Monitor category trends, competitive activity, consumer behavior, market performance, and emerging opportunities.

- Use consumer insights, reviews, ratings, sales data, and market intelligence to inform product and brand decisions.

- Develop structured feedback loops to continuously improve products and propositions.

6. Team & Cross-Functional Leadership:

- Lead and mentor brand management professionals and cross-functional project teams.

- Establish clear project governance, timelines, milestones, and launch accountability.

- Work closely with R&D, quality, regulatory, supply chain, sales, finance, creative, and marketing teams.

- Develop training and product education materials for internal and external stakeholders.

- Ensure timely execution of key launches and business initiatives.

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

- 9-14 years of experience in Brand Management, Marketing, Category Management, or related functions.

- Experience in Beauty, Personal Care, FMCG, Consumer Lifestyle, or adjacent categories.

- Demonstrated experience managing brands, portfolios, and new product launches.

- Strong understanding of consumer insights, product development, brand strategy, and commercial planning.

- Strong financial and analytical understanding, including P&L, margins, pricing, COGS, and business performance.

- Ability to combine creative thinking with structured execution.

- Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional leadership capabilities.

- Experience working with external agencies, vendors, manufacturers, or product development partners.

- Strong understanding of omnichannel consumer journeys and modern retail/digital ecosystems.