Overview

Position Overview

The Director, Product Innovation-Ingredient & Translational Science, leads IVC’s early-stage science and product innovation capability, connecting consumer and customer needs with ingredient science, raw material strategy, formulation feasibility, clinical science and claims substantiation, supplier capability, and scalable product development.

 

This role strengthens R&D as a growth engine by improving scientific and clinical credibility, reducing development rework, accelerating speed-to-market, and building a reusable science-to-product pipeline for VMS, supplement, OTC-adjacent, and functional nutrition products.

The purpose of this role will be to build an IVC-ready early-stage product innovation function that improves how the RD organization selects ingredients, evaluates suppliers, generates clinical support and substantiates claims, designs feasible formulas, and converts scientific opportunities into manufacturable, commercially viable products.

 

This is a science-to-feasibility-to-commercialization leadership role, not pure research or advisory function. The Director must ensure upstream innovation creates concepts that can be quoted, sourced, substantiated, manufactured, scaled, and delivered.

The role balances three priorities: customer value, operational feasibility, scientific/clinical and regulatory credibility

 

Hybrid work arrangement: Primarily remote, with an expectation to work in the office approximately five days per month and additional in-office attendance as business needs require.

Responsibilities

Specific Responsibilities

1. Lead IVC-Relevant Upstream Innovation Strategy

Develop and execute an early-stage product innovation strategy aligned to customer needs, category trends, dosage-form opportunities, ingredient technologies, scientific evidence, claims/benefit spaces, and manufacturable product platforms.

• Partner with Sales and Marketing to build a balanced product innovation pipeline across customer-informed and strategic innovation opportunities, platform innovation, cost and margin improvement, ingredient differentiation, clinical evidence and claims expansion, dosage-form/sensory improvement, sustainability, and clean-label innovation.
• Translate consumer and customer white spaces into technically feasible opportunities across tablets, chewables, hard capsules, softgels, powders, gummies, and emerging delivery formats.
• Evaluate concepts early for feasibility, raw material availability, cost, regulatory feasibility, claims support, formulation risk, sensory risk, packaging impact, and scale-up readiness.

2. Strengthen Ingredient Science and Raw Material Strategy

Lead ingredient science and support raw material strategy to improve how materials are selected, managed, risk-assessed, substituted, and used in product development.

• Partner with Raw Materials, Sourcing, Supplier Quality, Quality, Regulatory, and Product Development to ensure materials are scientifically sound, supply-ready, manufacturable, compliant, and commercially practical.
• Create governance for new and existing materials covering functionality, alternate supplier readiness, cost/availability, specification alignment, regulatory and claims suitability, stability and interaction risk, sensory impact, processing sensitivity, country/customer restrictions, sustainability profile, and quality/compliance risk.

3. Build Ingredient, Excipient, and Technology Intelligence RD Platforms

Develop reusable libraries and decision tools that shift IVC from project-by-project response to platform-based innovation, improving speed, quote confidence, formulation reuse, and technical credibility.

• Cover actives, botanicals, minerals, probiotics, heat/moisture-sensitive ingredients, encapsulation/protection systems, coatings, smart-release technologies, taste masking, sweetener and sugar-free systems, bioavailability technologies, clean-label/sustainability alternatives, cost-optimized excipients, and packaging-sensitive ingredients.
• Maintain these platforms as practical tools for Sales support, ingredient and product platforms, dosage-form decisions, and early feasibility reviews.

4. Translate Claims, Evidence, and Consumer Needs into Product Design

Translate ingredient science, nutrition science, clinical evidence, consumer insights, and customer needs into claims-ready, marketable, and manufacturable product concepts.

• Partner with Regulatory Science & Affairs to ensure claims are substantiated, structurally/functionally appropriate, customer-relevant, label-friendly, defensible, and aligned with dosage, ingredient form, and evidence strength.
• Enable R&D to credibly demonstrate that IVC can create products with meaningful science, supportable claims, and reliable execution.

5. Improve Quote, RFP/RFQ, and Early Feasibility Discipline

Working with Raw Materials and Formulation leads, establish technical front-end discipline for customer requests, RFPs, RFQs, innovation briefs, rapid feasibility decisions, and new product governance.

• Assess formula complexity, raw material risk, dosage-form fit, claims feasibility, regulatory constraints, sensory expectations, manufacturing complexity, cost, and margin impact before commitments are made.
• Reduce overcommitted quotes, improve technical confidence, and ensure IVC commitments are realistic and deliverable.

6. Manage the External R&D and Innovation Ecosystem

Build and manage external partnerships that expand IVC’s innovation reach and support VP R&D/SLT decisions on long-term scientific and technical collaborations.

• Scout and prioritize ingredient suppliers, excipient suppliers, technology providers, academic partners, clinical/nutrition experts, external formulation specialists, and scientific advisory networks.
• Focus on technologies that improve differentiation, speed-to-market, claims credibility, stability, bioavailability, sensory experience, cost efficiency, clean-label positioning, sustainability, manufacturability, and customer win rates.
• Govern external innovation through technical due diligence, proof-of-concept testing, IP/commercial evaluation, customer relevance assessment, and scale-up feasibility.

7. Drive the R&D Innovation Pipeline Aligned to Business and Growth Priorities

• Own the IVC US early-stage R&D innovation pipeline, and contribute to global strategic initiatives aligned with business growth, customer needs, strategic accounts, category priorities, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Maintain a product innovation pipeline spanning near-term customer-ready concepts, mid-term platform technologies, long-term differentiated science platforms, cost/margin opportunities, claims/benefit innovation, and external partnerships.
• Partner with Sales, and Account Product Management to integrate technically sound early-stage product innovation into portfolio reviews, stage-gate governance, agile feasibility sprints, and customer innovation forums.

8. Enable Product Development and Manufacturing Success

• Partner with Product Development, Packaging, Quality, and Operations to ensure early stage concepts are feasible and translate into robust, scalable product design aligned with plant execution, customer timelines, cost targets, and quality expectations.

Qualifications

The Candidate

Education, Experience, and Licenses:

 

• Master’s degree in science, marketing, or business administration
• Master’s degree in nutrition preferred. Registered Dietitian, PhD and/or MBA a plus.
• 7+ years professional experience with a CPG, nutritional supplement, OTC, or cosmetic manufacturing company - product marketing, product management, product development roles.
• 5+ years in product development or science-related role.
• Proven track record in the areas of product development and product innovation.
• Proficient with use of the Internet, MS outlook, MS office - including word, excel and power point.

 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously
• High technical/scientific acumen and familiarity with nutraceutical ingredient raw materials
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to facilitate and lead team meetings, and present reports to management
• Proven success working cross functionally on a team, while holding others accountable for executing required tasks
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to design processes to increase efficiency, quality and communication
• Proven track record in the areas of product development and product innovation.
• Proficient with use of the Internet, MS outlook, MS office - including word, excel and power point.