Beauty and Wellbeing Global Trends and Beauty Academy Lead

England, United Kingdom

Professional seated at a conference table with laptops and a presentation screen in a modern office setting

Job ID:: R-83798
Date posted:: 01/14/2026
Job Type:: Full time
Job Category:: Marketing

Job Title: Beauty and Wellbeing Global Trends and Beauty Academy Lead

Location: 100 Victoria Embankment

About the team:

The Prospective Innovation, Sustainability & Design ('PISD')team connects thebusiness grouptogether and partners theMarketingleadership team in the key areas ofTrends, Innovation, Design and Beauty Culture & Capability.All of this is done in close collaboration with the Design SVP, Global CMO, Brand Leadsand BU leaders across the world. Reporting to the Foresight, Design & Beauty Academy Director,this roleis central to driving our beauty trends and capabilities agenda.You will have theopportunity toshapethe strategic trends content created to drive the innovation strategies for B&W marketingand play a pivotal role intransforming the company’sexpertisein beautyso that we become a true industry challenger.

Background/Context

As a newly formed transformational change team, we are putting significant investment into building connection within the team, they not only understand themselves, each other, but also their role in supporting the business strategy and delivering impact through our OKR’s.The team values are centred around trust, transparency, honesty, authenticity, good intention, and which live out through the 4 Unilever Behaviours in the day-to-day execution.

It is critical for us that every member feels seen,heardand valued; we lean into the hard conversations with good intention to learn, adapt and improve. Making transparency and trust a core principle that the leadership team is nurturing as we builda strong foundationand transition through the stages of team formation.

We have a BOLD ambition, which is transformation at the core. To achieve this, we are re-writing long established processes and ways of working, thinking, educating, inspiring the cross functional teams and brands within which we work. Therefore, the profile of the talents we try to recruit, is critical; challenge thestatusquo, dynamic, resilient, agile, solution finders beyond pure executant and of course crafters.

B&W Foresight & Trend Deployment

Foresight & Trends Strategy: Lead the creation and implementation of a trend’s strategy forB&W and thePISD team to meet the core needs of the team: innovation, packagingdesignand sustainability. Identify market development opportunities across the B&W portfolio andenable the PISD innovation team to craft innovation mixes
Content Development: You will work closely alongside external agencies and our internal R&D and CMI experts to create trends using your storytelling skills to ensure a cohesive, multi-sourcenarrative and the scientific and technical content is translated into language that is easily understood and actionable by the business
Support thePISDhair and skincare design leads to interpret the macro innovation and design trends into more a specific ‘so what’ for our haircare and skincare brands

Beauty Academy

Define the strategy& calendarfor the Beauty Academy yearly curriculumto deliver against wider B&W priorities
Identifyrelevant trends and spaces in beauty to inform key topics covered within the Beauty Academy learning curriculum
Recruit & work closely with a network of beauty specialist agencies to develop and drive the capability programme
Understand the strategic grounding and priorities of B&W to ensure Beauty Academy content is aligned to the required transformation
Lead the deployment of Beauty Academy content through live face to face/virtual sessions and online content library ensuring the relevant content reaches the right teams across the organisation and that content is highly relevant, engaging, actionable and delivers better marketing work. Lead & deliver yearlyLearning dayevent for all Marketing & insight communities
Buildandmaintaina strong relationship withcentralmarketing excellence teamtoleveragerelevant learnings and best practice to enhance the Beauty Academycurriculum
Track & deliverprogram learningpriority metrics

House of Beauty

Manageday to dayoperations of theHouse of Beautybuilding, including operationalisation,tracking& escalation to Director

Leadership

Line manager supervisionand coachtwodirect reports
Manage theTrends, Beauty academy&HoBbudgetsincluding Forecasts
Interconnect with the Brand Partner and Design Leadsto shape and inform Beauty Academy into Action andInnoProf(Innovation Annual Global Showcase)
Manage the ongoing relationships and performance feedback with account teams for trend and capabilities agencies
Reporting line(s)intothe Foresight, Trends & Beauty Academy Director

Key Skills:

Curiosity and passion for beauty and aesthetics with deep understanding of the skin/hair category and competitors
Proactive self-starter, accountable for defining,drivingand owning the Strategy and Execution
Ability to be able to juggle multiple projects and priorities, as well asdemonstratingreal ownership and accountability
An outstanding communicator, relationshipbuilderand influencer, capable of working effectively with counterparts of all work levels and across multiple cultures/countries and able to say no
Strong business acumen and strategic thinking that makes you performance orientated, able to sharply define priorities and execute with excellence
Excellent project management, planning and organisation skills
Strategic networker who can proactively seek out and create opportunities to expand their professional network andleveragethese connections for capability or trends projects
Extremely high degree of attention to detail

Key Experience:

Bachelor’s Degree with a significant level of experience of working in strategy or insights
Experience of leading innovation and brand strategy development, particularly in beauty
Demonstrated ability in the translation and understanding of scientific territories and the direct link and creation of a thread to innovation spaces
A personal interest in keeping connected to the changing external world & evidence of being able to develop strategic trend content from various sources and delivering with impact to the business
A flair for beauty, fashion,artor design; having connections in this world is a plus
Proventrack recordof planning,organisingand executing successful large events e.g. conferences, trade shows, corporatemeetingsor large social gatherings
Proventrack recordof leading a cross-functional team with an ability to be able to manage multiple projects in parallel
Previousinsight or trends agency experience preferred
Line management experience and leading through change

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace.

Location

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

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 are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. 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 at Unilever | Unilever.

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How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down.

What can I do?

If you become aware of potential recruitment fraud, spot fake Unilever recruitment adverts or fake LinkedIn profiles, report them via Una Live Chat.

Unilever does not accept responsibility or liability for any candidates who are financially impacted by recruitment fraud. Your vigilance is key!

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