R&D Project Manager, Essential Home (12 Month FTC)

Essential Home

With a trusted portfolio of world-class Air Care, Surface, Laundry, and Pest Control products, the Essential Home team’s purpose is to Make a House Your Home. Fuelling this newly formed business and leadership team is a diverse and inclusive culture for all. Together, we’re shaping a team with a founder mentality: that listens and learns, and that is entrepreneurial, agile, and action-oriented.

With high-quality brands such as Air Wick, Cillit Bang, Calgon, and Mortein, now is an exciting time to join a dynamic company full of purpose, pace, and energy, creating a truly unique learning and career opportunity for all in the world\’s best-loved and trusted hygiene, health, and nutrition brands. Our purpose defines why we exist: to protect, heal, and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. We are a global team united by this purpose.

Research & Development

In R&D, we\’re full of highly skilled talents including Scientists, Engineers, Medical, Clinical, and Regulatory professionals— all working to create a cleaner, healthier world. With nine Centres of Excellence, we continually seek out new opportunities by using science, entrepreneurial flair, and fearless innovation to develop and enhance our existing portfolio, never compromising on quality or performance.

We do the right thing, always, by ensuring responsibility and integrity, complying with regulatory legislation worldwide, and ensuring our products are safe for consumers and of the highest quality.

The size of our organization means you\’ll have opportunities to learn and work in different R&D functions, gaining exposure to various disciplines, teams, and environments. You will also have access to our R&D Academy, designed to develop our team and support your growth within our organization.

About The Role

This position is a 12-month fixed-term contract (FTC).

As part of the Essential Home R&D organization, you will work closely with all R&D functions globally, as well as supply, procurement, regional/category marketing, commercial teams, and external partners. Your team will deliver projects that drive business results, outperform the market, and maintain or achieve brand leadership within the category while maximizing profitability. This role requires strong project leadership, planning, budget management, stakeholder management, and communication skills.

Your responsibilities

• Interface with cross-functional stakeholders and partners across Commercial, Design, I&A, Supply, Procurement, Quality, R&D, and External Technology partners.
• Work closely with innovation and consumer science teams to ensure seamless project and technology transfer supporting successful market launches.
• Plan and deliver projects: build and manage accurate, multi-faceted project plans within your portfolio/scope, aligned with innovation pipeline, budget, resources, and timing objectives.
• Clearly communicate risks and challenges, ensuring stakeholder alignment.
• Deliver projects and activities for new product development and enhancement of existing products in line with category strategy.
• Maintain strong communication with key stakeholders (marketing, supply, SQRC, etc.).
• Manage budgets and prioritization within your area of responsibility.
• Coordinate with technical development and supply chain personnel to ensure activities are completed as planned and products are successfully launched.
• Understand the operating model and drive continuous improvement, ensuring all key documentation is in place at the right time.
• Ensure all paperwork and documentation comply with SOPs.

The experience we\’re looking for

• Ability to understand key consumer needs and translate them into viable product concepts using new or existing technologies, scientific principles, or methods.
• Project management skills to build timelines based on the operating model and key business stage gates.
• Technical curiosity to improve processes and solve complex problems.
• Understanding of R&D validation and production success criteria.
• Self-starting and capable of working independently.
• Strong negotiation, influence, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to build strong working relationships and networks.
• Strong intellectual curiosity and appetite for exploring new territories.
• Good communication skills, both written and oral in English, with good presentation skills.

The skills for success

• Business strategy, task execution under pressure, strategic decision-making, business acumen, commercial awareness, objective setting, accountability, adaptability, consumer insight, creative direction, product lifecycle management, change leadership, intellectual property, collaboration, partnership building, relationship management, technological adaptability, product vision and strategy development, challenging the status quo, innovation processes, predictive analytics, digital transformation for R&D, quality, and manufacturing.

What we offer

With inclusion at the heart of everything we do, working alongside our four global Employee Resource Groups, we support our people at every step of their career journey, helping them succeed in their own way.

We invest in our employees\’ wellbeing through parental benefits, mental health support via Employee Assistance Program, life insurance, and other local benefits. Our global share plans and short-term incentives recognize outstanding performance, aligned with Reckitt\’s pay-for-performance philosophy.

Equality

We recognize that great people don\’t always \’tick all the boxes\’. We hire for potential as well as experience. Even if you don\’t meet every point on the job description, if this role and our company feel like a good fit, we want to hear from you.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to age, disability, or other protected statuses.

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