VP of Brand Development & Product Innovation

About Gently

Gently is a fast-growing personal care brand for babies and kids, focused on gentle formulas, meaningful efficacy, and healthier family lifestyles. Rooted in science and modern parenting needs, Gently creates products that are safe, effective, and trusted by young parents in Indonesia.

Role Overview

We are seeking a VP of Brand Development & Product Innovation to build and scale a multi-brand and multi-category portfolio. This role owns the end-to-end innovation pipeline—from consumer insight to R&D, formulation, packaging, brand positioning, and commercialization—ensuring each product delivers strong market fit, profitability, and brand equity—responsible for building, scaling, and differentiating multiple brands across skincare, makeup, and nutrition categories.

What We're Looking For

• 10–15+ years in beauty / FMCG / consumer brands
• Strong track record in:

1.Skincare & beauty product development (mandatory)

2.Brand building (mandatory)

3.Innovation leadership (mandatory)

4.Consumer & Market Insight (is a plus)

5.R&D formulation (is a plus)

6.Nutrition, foods & supplements product development (is a plus)

• Experience launching successful & scalable products and brands

What You Will Do

1. Innovation Strategy & Portfolio Leadership

• Define innovation strategy across skincare, makeup, and nutrition categories
• Build and manage a robust innovation pipeline (0–36 months horizon)
• Identify white spaces and future growth platforms
• Build a balanced innovation portfolio:
• Core (defend hero products)
• Renovation (improvements)
• Adjacent (expand categories)
• Breakthrough innovation (new growth engines from new products/categories expansion)
• Build roadmap for next 1–2 hero products (that can contribute at least 20–30% each to the total company's revenue)

2. End-to-End Product Innovation Ownership

Own full lifecycle:

• Insight → ideation → concept → validation → development → testing → launch → post launch optimization

Key responsibilities:

• Define winning product concepts
• Oversee R&D, formulation, claims development, and regulatory compliance
• Ensure strong product-market fit before launch, through consumer validation loops
• Drive launch readiness (≥80% score)
• Continuously optimize post-launch performance
• Drive speed-to-market without compromising quality

3. R&D & Product Manufacturing Excellence

• Lead internal R&D, external labs and manufacturers
• Translate consumer insights into concept & formulation briefs
• Define ingredients & technology direction, ensuring product efficacy, safety, and differentiation (clinical, sensorial, or ingredient-based)
• Lead claims strategy (e.g., dermatologist-tested, clinically proven)
• Align formulations with cost targets and scalability
• Ensure:
• High product performance (rating ≥4.5)
• Repeat purchase ≥30%
• Claims credibility & compliances with BPOM regulation
• Balance:
• Efficacy
• Cost (COGS)
• Scalability

4. Packaging & Value Engineering

• Lead packaging innovation (e.g. primary & secondary pack, master box, plastic shrink, etc):
• End to end development process
• Functionality (features, hygiene, usability) & quality compliances
• Aesthetics (align with brand direction)
• Cost optimization: Optimize packaging vs COGS cost ratio
• Collaborate with R&D and suppliers to innovate materials & formats
• Drive COGS reduction initiatives

5. Brand Development & Positioning

• Define and evolve brand architecture across multiple brands, lead the end-to-end research & development for:
• Brand identity
• Positioning
• Target audience
• Pricing strategy
• Build distinct, memorable brands with strong:
• Awareness
• Perceived value
• Pricing power
• Ensure consistency across:
• Product
• Packaging
• Marketing communication

6. Brand Equity Ownership

Own Brand Equity Index (BEI):

• Awareness (unaided & aided)
• NPS
• Repeat purchase rate
• Price premium ability

7. Innovation Pipeline Management

Build and manage a high-quality innovation pipeline:

• Maintain innovation pipeline effectiveness to create exponential business growth
• Ensure strong stage-gate discipline & overall projects management
• Improve time-to-market (6–9 months standard)

8. Cross-Functional Leadership

Partner closely with:

• Marketing (for launch & scale) & Sales Team, ensuring smooth commercialization from concept to shelf
• Supply chain (for production readiness)
• Finance (for margin targets)
• Quality & Regulatory

9. Financial Ownership (Product-Level)

• Own total innovation & product-level P&L:
• Gross margin (target ≥65–75%)
• COGS optimization
• Pricing Strategy
• Ensure all launches meet:
• Revenue targets
• Margin thresholds
• Payback period expectation (<6–12 months)

10. Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Build and lead teams across:
• Brand
• Product development
• R&D
• Establish:
• Robust Project management & Stage-gate processes
• Innovation playbooks & systems (SOPs)
• Brand Development playbooks & systems (SOPs)
• Decision frameworks
• Continuous improvement across innovation team
• Develop future leaders and functional excellence
• Create a high-performance, innovation-driven culture

11. Consumer & Market Insight Integration

• Institutionalize consumer-first innovation
• Translate trends into actionable product ideas:
• Ingredients (e.g., niacinamide, peptides)
• Formats (e.g., hybrid skincare-makeup)
• Behaviors (e.g., skinimalism, wellness)
• Use qualitative & quantitative research for concept & strategy validation

Key Capabilities

Strategic

• Portfolio thinking (not just SKU-level)
• Ability to identify future winning trends early

Product

• Deep understanding of:
• Formulation
• Ingredients
• Consumer behavior

Commercial

• Strong grasp of:
• Pricing
• Margin
• Unit economics

Leadership

• Ability to build systems, not just execute tasks
• Cross-functional influence