Head of R&D Strategy and Operations in Pembroke

Welcome to Haleon. We’re a purpose-driven, world-class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we’ve grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity. Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science. Now it’s time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance-focused culture.

About the Role

We are seeking a Head of R&D Strategy and Operations to serve as a senior enterprise leader responsible for defining, prioritising, and orchestrating the global innovation agenda across brands, categories, regions, and capabilities within a Consumer Healthcare organisation. This role has end‑to‑end ownership of the global R&D Capabilities, ensuring R&D investments are rigorously prioritised, actively governed, and translated into sustainable growth and long‑term value creation. As a core member of the Global R&D Leadership Team, the role acts as a strategic partner to the Chief R&D Officer and works closely with senior leaders across categories and operating units to drive innovation speed, impact, and organisational effectiveness at scale. The Head of R&D Strategy and Operations integrates science, consumer insight, commercial strategy, data, and market analytics to operationalise enterprise innovation and R&D strategies and deliver superiority and sufficiency across sub‑categories, formats, benefits, channels, and price corridors versus competition.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise innovation & R&D strategy: Operationalize global innovation and R&D strategy in partnership with senior R&D leadership, including functional strategies (e.g. Packaging, Advanced Research). Translate enterprise growth priorities into clear strategic choices and operational action plans across categories, platforms, technologies, and time horizons. Lead long‑range R&D planning, scenario development, and strategic investment framing. Ensure alignment with consumer health purpose, regulatory standards, and value‑creation objectives.
• Global R&D Capability governance: Own the overall R&D pipeline and capabilities across all lifecycle stages and innovation tiers. Identify gaps, risks, and opportunities and drive corrective actions. Lead governance forums, including prioritisation, funding decisions, and resource allocation. Balance near‑term delivery with long‑term innovation, platform building, and scientific advancement. Hold leaders accountable for R&D outcomes, value delivery, and risk management.
• Operationalising the R&D strategy: Translate strategy into actionable roadmaps, milestones, KPIs, and success metrics. Lead multi‑year R&D operationalisation initiatives, including operating model design and governance. Drive speed‑to‑value, productivity, and cost efficiency through simplification, digital enablement (including AI), and strategic partnerships. Ensure R&D outcomes are scalable, repeatable, and commercially impactful.
• Executive partnership & enterprise leadership: Serve as a trusted advisor to the Chief R&D Officer and help set the enterprise R&D agenda. Partner closely with Quality, Supply Chain, Commercial, Regulatory, Strategy, Finance, Data & Analytics, Transformation, and HR leaders. Lead preparation and presentation of R&D strategies for Executive Committee and Board‑level forums. Represent perspectives in senior enterprise decision‑making.
• External orientation & ecosystem engagement: Maintain an external lens on consumer health trends, science, technology, and best practices. Support strategic partnerships and innovation ecosystems that strengthen pipeline quality and capability depth.

What You’ll Bring

• Basic Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business or Science required; MBA, PhD, or equivalent advanced degree preferred; 10–15+ years of progressive leadership experience in leading R&D, strategy, operations, consulting, or general management; Proven track record of owning complex, enterprise‑scale capabilities and portfolios and translating strategy into execution; Experience operating at Executive Committee and Board interface; Background in Consumer Health, Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, or other regulated industries preferred.
• Capabilities: Enterprise‑level strategic judgement with strong execution bias; Deep understanding of innovation economics, trade‑offs, and capital allocation; Strong executive communication, influence, and storytelling skills; Ability to lead through complexity in a global, matrixed environment; Capability to leverage AI, data, and analytics to inform decisions and accelerate outcomes.

This is a high‑impact leadership opportunity to shape the future of global R&D, influencing strategy, investment, and execution across an enterprise Capabilities with meaningful consumer and business outcomes.

Please save a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert. When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the online application or your CV to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above. The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

Why Haleon

Our Win as One Framework is a simple, stretching definition of our future direction. It includes our purpose, ambitions, strategic drivers, and behaviours that will enable us to Win as One. This framework guides our decision‑making, strategy, and culture. The successful candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities:

• Consumer first, always: Engage key business counterparts and operational stakeholders to deliver operational execution of Haleon strategies related to eCommerce activities, always putting the consumer first.
• Collaborate for impact: Establish and maintain relationships with critical groups to ensure customer knowledge is utilized to inform and deliver on the eCommerce roadmap, collaborating for impact.
• Unlock value, at pace: Drive business process improvement throughout the commercial and operational support teams, unlocking value at pace.
• Grow myself and others: Continuously look for opportunities to learn, build skills, and share learning, growing myself and others.

Job Posting End Date: 2026-03-07

Equal Opportunities

Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.

During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees. The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.

Adjustment or Accommodations Request

If you require a reasonable adjustment or accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please let your recruiter know by providing them with a description of specific adjustments you are requesting. We’ll provide all reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process and treat all information you provide us in confidence.

Note to candidates

The Haleon recruitment team will contact you using a Haleon email account (@haleon.com). If you are not sure whether the email you received is from Haleon, please get in touch.