Fragrance Design Associate Director

Job Title: Fragrance Design Associate Director

Location: Trumbull, Connecticut

Want to change the world?
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, Sunsilk, Sure, Axe, Comfort, Persil and Surf. Faced with the daunting issues of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a connected 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”.
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 world-leading products. Superior fragrances play a critical role in the delivery of unmissable superiority for Unilever. To support this, we have embarked on a fragrance transformation journey to deliver world-class fragrances for our Personal Care, Beauty & Wellbeing and Home Care Business Groups. This transformation will consist of expert fragrance teams with the skills to design and formulate winning fragrances.

Job Purpose:
Our mission as the Fragrance Innovation team is to elevate consumers’ experiences by delivering delightful fragrances. We have several exciting opportunities for Fragrance Experts, with not only a passion for fragrance, but a passion to create rewarding experiences for the consumers we serve; and in doing so making a positive difference to their lives.
You will be leading the Global Fragrance Design projects for Unilever, working as the interface between perfumers, category teams and Fragrance House partners, to deliver excellence in all aspects of cross-category perfumery, with a core focus on Personal Care.

Main Responsibilities
As a Senior Fragrance Design Manager, you will be at the forefront of our fragrance transformation journey—creating world-class scents for Personal Care. You will lead global projects, working closely with Brand, Perfumers, Category Teams and Fragrance House partners to deliver superior fragrances that delight and inspire.

What You Will Do
• Build Brand Fragrance Strategy: Take charge of developing and implementing the fragrance strategy for Unilever’s brands. Translate brand vision and consumer insights into a creative, forward-thinking fragrance roadmap, ensuring our scents are differentiating and set new standards for excellence.
• Lead Fragrance Creation: Design and select winning fragrances, translating brand strategy and consumer & trend insights into differentiating creative scent solutions
• Communication & storytelling: Craft compelling fragrances stories for Fragrance strategy, product launches and brand discussions
• Stakeholder Engagement: Act as the key interface between perfumers, category teams, fragrance house partners, and internal functions (R&D, marketing, supply chain). Communicate strategy, approach, and vision effectively to both internal and external stakeholders.
• Team Leadership: Build, lead, and inspire a team of fragrance experts, fostering collaboration and professional growth. Provide guidance and support to ensure high performance and creativity.
• Drive Innovation: Champion global initiatives, build strong relationships, and set the creative direction for Unilever’s brands.
• Technical Excellence & Consumer Product Experience: Work closely with R&D colleagues to design the best fragrance formats and bases for consumers. Ensure every fragrance delivers outstanding performance, meets safety and regulatory standards, and creates memorable experiences for our consumers.
• Consumer Insights: Help analyse market research and sensory data to identify scent insights & recommendations to deliver what consumers love.
• Digital Leadership: Embrace digital tools and data-driven insights to keep Unilever at the cutting edge.
• Portfolio Management: Take responsibility for managing the fragrance portfolio, conducting competitive reviews, and contributing to marketing analysis to ensure Unilever’s brands remain at the forefront of innovation.

What You Will Need To Succeed
• Industry experience in fragrance evaluation and development, in a Fragrance House would be an advantage
• The job requires a high level of olfactive ability coupled with an inquisitive passion to understand consumer preference in fragrance, being their voice in the creation of new fragrances
• Able to prioritize complex workloads, seamlessly working across multiple time zones and self-motivate.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, using positive influence to gain support for transformational programmes
• This role will come with managerial responsibilities Experience in managing individuals
• A leader: This job requires the candidate to be an empowered leader in order to operate with independence and agility. You will work with teams from multiple cultures and business backgrounds with differing opinions and motivations. You will need to find creative solutions to guide decision making.
• You’re a storyteller: Fragrance is where science meets art . Storytelling is a powerful tool when working with fragrances and communicating the fragrance agenda.
• Forward-thinking: You must be intrigued by and be aware of trends, competitor activities and plans for other brands in our business as constant sources of inspiration and intelligence.
• Love to win and having fun doing it: Fragrance is not an exact science. You must have the drive to create winning fragrances and have the passion to keep Unilever fragrance at the forefront of innovation with digital tools and new methodologies.
• A culture & change champion: The role and the context in which we operate is a very dynamic one and you must be passionate about our consumers, their needs, concerns, like and dislikes and driven to find creative change solutions.
• You will have a ‘digital mindset’ towards your way of working to ensure that data and insights are captured, maximised and used across the business.

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