Associate Brand Manager, Nexxus Innovation

ABOUT UNILEVER
With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our, collaborative, and flexible working environment. Our organizational ambition centers around creating workplaces that foster an inclusive culture across all aspects of our business. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

Born in 1979, Nexxus has been at the forefront of protein science in haircare for 46 years. Nexxus is one of Unilever’s 30 power brands, and one of the Beauty and Wellbeing North America strategic brands positioned to accelerate premium growth for the portfolio. We are looking for an experienced Associate Brand Manager, Innovation to support this critically important brand for B&W on its continued growth trajectory in North America

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
This role provides an incredible opportunity for a Beauty Marketer to drive the multi-year Nexxus business growth strategy through innovation on the Nexxus Wash & Care and Treatments segments.  The Associate Brand Manager will work together with the Brand Manager to translate the aligned brand growth strategy into a 12Q plan of winning innovation mixes to deliver future growth as per the strategic plan for the brand in US and CA. The Associate Brand Manager will lead a cross-functional team including R&D, supply chain, consumer insights to understand consumer needs and craft innovative mixes that spark consumer desire and drive incremental brand growth.  This Associate Brand Manager will work across the organization, gathering input from adjacent functions such as finance, sales, and partner with marketing demand creation to ensure the launch success. The Associate Brand Manager will also input into the multi-year Nexxus brand strategy to accelerate growth and drive competitiveness, including identifying future growth spaces 5+ years out, helping to define the destination brand architecture and the innovation / renovation roadmap to deliver competitive, profitable and sustainable growth.

This role is a strong opportunity for someone who derives energy from beauty, innovation, taking projects from conceptual idea into physical reality, anticipating market and competitive moves, and building a highly successful team across marketing, R&D, SC, finance, artwork, and CMI. The ideal candidate is a crafter and operator combined, who can flex comfortably across senior stakeholder engagement and has a passion to deliver brilliant innovation to the market.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Lead Innovation Development: Manage end-to-end innovation projects across wash & care and treatment platforms—from concept to launch.
• Drive Premiumization: Continuously elevating the core via elevated product, packaging, and storytelling that resonate with beauty-forward consumers.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with R&D, Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, and external agencies to bring innovations to life with excellence.
• Consumer & Trend Insight: Stay ahead of beauty trends, consumer behavior, and cultural shifts to inform innovation strategy and pipeline development. Deeply understand market category dynamics to unlock and inform the NA innovation plan.
• Innovation Sell-In: Support development of material for customer and stakeholder sell-in, including trade stories, key visuals, product samples, investor board documents.
• Manage Project Budgets: Inclusive of raising POs, budget forecasting, and additional budget requests as needed.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED TO SUCCEED
Experience & Skills:
• 3+ years of experience in brand management, innovation, or product development
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage complex innovation pipelines
• Independent and proactive, with strong leadership and interpersonal skills
• Strong bias for action while maintaining a positive approach on getting things done
• Deep passion for understanding the category, consumers, and shoppers
• Data-driven problem solver with strong business acumen; ability to connect the dots on different information sources to come up with powerful insights and translate insights into action
• Passion for beauty and design and strong craftmanship skills with attention to detail,