VP, Data & AI, R&D & Innovation

Description

Position Summary

The Vice President, R&D Data & AI Product, drives the design, delivery, and measurable business impact of data and AI products that support research, formulation, packaging, and innovation across the product development lifecycle. This executive is accountable for transforming scientific, experimental, and innovation data into advanced analytics and AI capabilities that accelerate concept-to-market timelines, improve innovation success rates, and enable more sustainable product design.

The VP leads a global product organization focused on delivering scalable data, analytics, and AI solutions that support formulation intelligence, ingredient and packaging innovation, and R&D portfolio decision-making. Initiatives are aligned to innovation velocity, quality, sustainability, and pipeline performance.

This role serves as the primary Data & AI partner to the Chief R&D & Innovation Officer (CR&IO) and R&D leadership, translating innovation priorities and scientific complexity into enterprise-ready data and AI products that power faster, smarter innovation.

Description

Strategic Leadership & Partnership:

• Define and own the multi-year R&D Data & AI product vision and roadmap, aligned to global supply chain, operations, and sustainability priorities.

• Serve as the primary Data & AI partner to R&D & Innovation Officer (CR&IO) and R&D leadership teams.

• Act as the data and AI owner for for R&D and innovation workflows, including:

• Formulation, ingredient discovery, and experimental data analytics

• Product development and NPD portfolio intelligence

• Packaging design, material innovation, and sustainability analytics

• Concept-to-market performance tracking and innovation pipeline decisioning

• Maintain fluency in the R&D technology landscape (e.g., PLM, LIMS, formulation and packaging systems), while partnering with system/platform owners to ensure data readiness and integration.

• Represent R&D Data & AI priorities in enterprise forums, governance bodies, and investment reviews to align innovation and data strategies globally.

• Translate R&D data and AI strategies into defined OKRs, innovation KPIs, and measurable outcomes related to speed, quality, sustainability, and pipeline success.

• Collaborate with emerging technologies teams to assess and introduce new AI, simulation, and decision-support capabilities into the R&D and innovation roadmap.

Long Description

Product Portfolio & Delivery Oversight:

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the R&D Data & AI product portfolio, ensuring solutions are scalable, reusable, and aligned to global innovation and product development priorities.

• The product portfolio spans:

• R&D & Innovation Intelligence - formulation data, ingredient libraries, experimental and scientific data, and R&D performance analytics.

• Product Development & NPD Intelligence - innovation pipeline analytics, concept-to-market tracking, and portfolio decision support.

• Packaging & Sustainability Intelligence - packaging design data, material innovation insights, and sustainability analytics.

• Innovation Decision Support - AI-enabled tools for experimentation, scenario evaluation, and innovation prioritization.

• Oversee prioritization, funding, and execution across global and regional R&D and innovation roadmaps.

• Own the end-to-end data architecture and data quality strategy for R&D and innovation datasets, ensuring trust, traceability, and readiness for analytics and AI.

• Oversee the development, deployment, and lifecycle management of AI/ML models, experimentation analytics, decision-support tools, dashboards, and innovation insights platforms.

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Data & AI Product Managers and Data Analytics experts.

• Partner with the Build Organizations to align technical architecture, secure resourcing, ensure delivery excellence, and accelerate outcomes.

• Establish standardized processes to measure ROI, adoption, and innovation value creation

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Leadership

• Serve as the Data & AI representative within R&D and Innovation leadership forums, guiding prioritization, investment decisions, and innovation roadmap alignment.

• Drive measurable adoption across global R&D, formulation, packaging, and innovation teams, ensuring data and AI solutions are embedded into research, experimentation, and product development workflows.

• Foster cross-functional collaboration with R&D, Sustainability, Technology, and Product Development partners to align data and AI initiatives to innovation priorities.

• Champion education, enablement, and culture change to increase data-driven experimentation, insight-led decisioning, and innovation velocity.

• Advocate for responsible, ethical, and compliant AI usage in scientific, experimental, and innovation-related applications.

Governance, Operations & Performance

• Ensure adherence to enterprise data governance, privacy, and security standards.

• Manage domain budgets, resource allocation, and OKRs in coordination with enterprise strategy and finance teams.

• Establish transparent reporting for leadership, including product performance dashboards, delivery milestones, and realized business impact.

• Partner with Governance, Architecture, and Strategy & Ops to continuously evolve operating models, tooling, and delivery maturity.

Qualifications

• 12-15+ years of progressive experience in data, analytics, product management, or technology leadership roles supporting R&D, innovation, or product development organizations.

• Deep understanding of product development and innovation ecosystems, including formulation science, ingredient intelligence, packaging engineering, sustainability data, and concept-to-market workflows.

• Expertise in innovation and R&D data domains, such as formulation and packaging systems, experimental and scientific data, NPD portfolio analytics, and innovation pipeline decisioning.

• Technical fluency in data platforms, integration frameworks, and modern cloud-based architectures (e.g., Azure, Databricks).

• Experience building and leading global teams and driving cross-functional digital, data, or AI transformation initiatives within R&D and innovation functions.

• Proficiency in Agile and product-centric delivery methodologies.

• Strong business acumen with experience delivering measurable impact on innovation velocity, quality, sustainability outcomes, and time-to-market through data and AI solutions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

It is Company's policy not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), gender identity or gender expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws and ordinances. The Company will endeavor to provide a reasonable accommodation consistent with the law to otherwise qualified employees and prospective employees with a disability and to employees and prospective employees with needs related to their religious observance or practices. Should you wish to apply for this position or any other position with the Company and you believe you require assistance to complete an application or participate in an interview, please contact USApplicantAccommodations@Estee.com.