R&D Oral Health Lead US
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
The R&D Oral Health Lead is Haleon US R&D’s accountable scientific authority for the Oral Health category, bringing deep technical expertise, rigorous evidence generation, and influential thought leadership to shape portfolio decisions. This newly created, Director‑level role owns the scientific strategy for the US Oral Health pipeline—from hypothesis to claims substantiation—ensuring robust study design, data integrity, regulatory/medical governance alignment, and consumer‑meaningful innovation across priority brands and indications. The role also serves as the single point of contact for US R&D for the US Oral Health Category Roundtable, led by the General Manager, with responsibility for framing scientific perspectives, enabling decision‑quality trade‑offs, and driving follow‑through.
This role is part of Future North America OTC Team.
Role Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
Serve as US R&D’s single accountable scientific owner for the Oral Health category, setting evidence standards, scientific direction, and decision criteria for the portfolio.
Own and maintain the US Oral Health innovation and claims roadmap (problem statements, hypotheses, evidence plans, and timelines), ensuring clear milestones, risks, and accountability for delivery.
Act as the US R&D single point of contact for the US Oral Health Category Roundtable (led by the GM): define scientific inputs, develop pre‑reads, document decisions, and drive action closure and impact tracking.
Technical Expertise & Evidence Generation
Lead the end‑to‑end design and execution of clinical, laboratory, and claims‑supporting studies, including protocol development, statistical considerations, endpoint selection, vendor oversight, and quality controls to ensure data integrity and reproducibility.
Serve as the recognized US oral care scientific thought leader—synthesizing internal/external evidence into clear scientific narratives, identifying emerging science, and translating insights into investable opportunities and defensible claims.
Establish fit‑for‑purpose evidence governance (study dossiers, traceable substantiation files, and decision logs) to enable confident internal reviews, audits, and external scrutiny.
Regulatory & Compliance Support
Partner with Regulatory Affairs and Legal to set claim substantiation standards and manage risk, ensuring compliance with FDA/FTC/NAD expectations and readiness for challenge, inquiry, or competitive response.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Drive aligned scientific decision‑making across Global Category R&D, Medical, Regulatory Affairs, Marketing, Insights, and Supply/Quality as needed—clarifying assumptions, trade‑offs, and go/no‑go recommendations grounded in evidence.
Project & Program Leadership
Lead priority US R&D programs with end‑to‑end accountability for scientific integrity, timelines, and budget; proactively identify risks, resolve issues, and ensure measurable outcomes from study readouts through claim enablement and launch support.
Why you?
Basic Qualifications:
Advanced degree (PhD, DDS/DMD, MS) in a relevant scientific discipline.
10+ years’ experience in R&D within consumer health, oral care, or pharmaceutical fields.
Preferred Qualifications:
Demonstrated experience developing claims and evidence strategies for consumer healthcare/oral care products (including substantiation dossiers and challenge readiness).
Exceptional scientific communication and stakeholder‑influence skills, including the ability to translate complex evidence into crisp recommendations for senior leaders and cross‑functional decision forums.
Track record of scientific thought leadership (e.g., publications, conference presentations, standards/working groups, or KOL partnerships) in oral health or adjacent biomedical fields.
Location: This position is based in Richmond, VA with in-office requirements.
Benefits
Haleon offers a robust Total Reward package that consists of competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits program. This includes a generous 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement and time off programs including 6 months paid parental leave. On day one, you are eligible for benefits, including our healthcare programs where the company pays for the majority of your medical coverage for you and your family. We also offer the opportunity to receive a discretionary bonus based on the achievement of key business performance and other incentive/recognition programs as part of the offering.
Job Posting End Date
2026-06-13
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.
Please note that if you are a US Licensed Healthcare Professional or Healthcare Professional as defined by the laws of the state issuing your license, Haleon may be required to capture and report expenses Haleon incurs, on your behalf, in the event you are afforded an interview for employment. This capture of applicable transfers of value is necessary to ensure Haleon’s compliance to all federal and state US Transparency requirements.
Accommodation Requests
If you require a reasonable accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include the following in your email:
Use subject line: ‘Haleon Careers: Job Accommodation Request’
Your Name and contact information
Requisition ID and Job Title you are interested in
Location of Requisition (city/state or province/country)
Description of specific accommodation you are requesting
Please note: Resumes, CVs, or other requests outside of accommodation support submitted to this email box will not be accepted.
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.
