Dove Innovation Brand Manager

Background & Purpose of the Job

The Dove Beauty team is seeking a brand manager to drive our global Beauty & Wellbeing business, with a focus on North America innovation. The immediate focus of the job will be to lead hair innovation deployment for the region as well as serving as general Dove and category expert, building a deep understanding of the market across diverse tools, conducting consumer work to inform the innovation journey, and working in collaboration with cross-functional teammates and other Dove Beauty project leaders to deliver the innovation funnel for Dove.  

Who You Are & What You’ll Do

This role is a strong opportunity for someone who derives energy from beauty, innovation, taking projects from conceptual idea into physical reality, anticipating market and competitive moves, and building a highly successful team across marketing, R&D, SC, finance, artwork, and CMI. The ideal candidate is a crafter and operator combined, who can flex comfortably across senior stakeholder engagement (Hair and Skin Brand Leads in NA, Latam, and Engagement, US & CA Ops and Demand Creation counterparts) and has a passion to deliver brilliant innovation to the market. You will join a broader Dove Beauty and Masterbrand community who holds themselves to high standards and lifts each other up. 

Your responsibilities will include: 

• Deeply understanding market category dynamics to unlock and inform the NA innovation plan 

• Leading 2026and 2027innovation projects for Doveand Dove Menhair to land in the market for in-year/Q1 TO growth opportunity for the brand 

• Working with a global PL on key core innovation projects for 2026/2027/2028 to ensure NA readiness for innovation, including the following possibilities: 

• Manage full DMCinnovation funnel and capacity 

• Limited Edition(s) acrossDove and DMC

Day to day contributions would include: 

• Innovation deployment: As US is typically the key Design market for innovations, this PL would partner closely with the global project leader to deliver the innovation post– Start milestone for NA (working with R&D and pack to source, create, optimize, and implement artwork and ensure OTIF). This PL would also own any NA specific innovation end to end. 

• Storytelling: Showcasing/presenting innovation and building trade stories relevant to NA retailers 

• Strategic pricing analysis: specifically delivering a NA view on competitive PPA for global innovations at Start phase  

• Business Case: Assessing and delivering business case assumptions across National and dComm in partnership with Ops, dComm, and demand creation teams. May include investigations on ecommerce first business models and SKU P&L analysis within innovation 

• 12QP setting 

• Leading US consumer studies: eg. Influencer co-creations, Beauty Superiority testing inputs, concept testing, Beauty Studio explores, Toluna, Numerator etc. 

• Investigating current business performance, tracking and inputting on UBS quarterly 

• Budget oversight within specific team  

• Specific innovation scope may flex depending on business need 

• A strong, resilient self-starter who is passionate about consumers, competitive growth, delivering innovation together, and making real stuff happen – are essential qualities for this role. 

What You’ll Need To Succeed

• Bachelor’s Degree, MBA preferred but not required 

• 5+ years of marketing experience preferred 

• Passion for Beauty – outside-in thinker 

• Highly competitive mindset and spirit to win 

• Strong existing mix development & innovation network leadership experience 

• Consumer love and passion for learning across new categories 

• Experience working with or leading cross-functional teams and agency partners 

• Experience with and understanding of US customers  

• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail 

• A good balance of analytical and creative thinking 

• Ability to lead with ambiguity 

• Agile thinking and resilience to adapt workplans as opportunities arise 

• Curious, courageous 

• Self-starter, comfortable with fast paced environment  

• Ability to work as part of virtual teams across geographies, cultures, and time zones 

• Comfort with Unilever tools and key processes (or ability to learn) including Circana/IRI, Numerator, Power BI, UBS, BLUE, API setting, etc.