Head of Innovation Discovery Technology

Haleon · Surrey

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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 
Reporting to the Head of R&D Digital & Technology and as a member of the R&D Digital & Technology Leadership Team, this role is accountable for the technology capabilities that enable R&D to detect, evaluate, prioritize and mature future innovation opportunities, helping Haleon identify new sources of growth earlier and translate them into innovation platforms, products and propositions. 

Future growth depends on Haleon’s ability to connect emerging consumer needs, market readiness, scientific and technology advances and external innovation opportunities. These signals must be translated into attractive opportunity spaces, growth platforms and ultimately products and propositions that can deliver differentiated consumer benefit. 

The purpose of this role is to create the connected digital ecosystem that enables that journey: bringing together internal and external intelligence, making R&D knowledge searchable and reusable, and applying analytics and AI to strengthen opportunity detection, discovery and decision-making. 

Success is defined by whether R&D can identify meaningful opportunities earlier, assess them with stronger evidence, connect insights across previously fragmented sources, and mature the most promising opportunities into growth platforms and innovation propositions, and accelerate decision-making across the innovation process.

Key responsibilities 

1. Shape the innovation discovery technology roadmap 

• Define the future-state ecosystem: Define the future-state ecosystem: Partner with R&D Strategy & Operations, Advanced Research and Technology, Category and Operating Unit R&D, and Enterprise Transformation, to define the technology capabilities and strategic building blocks required across detection, discovery, opportunity evaluation and early innovation maturation, in alignment with the Innovate to Market end-to-end process. 

• Make deliberate evolution choices: Determine where Haleon should standardize, simplify, integrate, modernize or retire capabilities, and where differentiated technology could create competitive advantage. Define the gaps, dependencies, sequencing and investment priorities required to move from the current landscape to the future state. 

• Build toward AI-enabled detection and discovery: Partner with D&T Data & AI to ensure the roadmap progressively strengthens the technology and enabling foundations needed to detect emerging signals, uncover connections, evaluate opportunities and track how they evolve over time, and guide early innovation decisions. 

2. Connect intelligence, knowledge and discovery 

• Connect internal and external intelligence: Partner with D&T Data & AI and other relevant teams to establish the ecosystem needed to bring together consumer, scientific, technology, market and external innovation signals, so R&D can identify meaningful shifts and opportunity spaces earlier. 

• Enable innovation governance and superiority decisions: Partner with R&D Strategy & Operations and the Transformation team to shape and connect the technology capabilities that support innovation governance, opportunity progression, and product superiority decision-making. 

• Make R&D knowledge searchable and reusable: Partner with D&T Data & AI and R&D leaders to connect research, evidence, expertise and learning across R&D, enabling innovation teams to find relevant knowledge, build on prior work and avoid unnecessary duplication. 

• Enable evidence-backed opportunity decisions: Partner with D&T Data & AI to apply analytics and responsible AI to help R&D evaluate the attractiveness, feasibility and differentiation potential of opportunity clusters, platforms, products and propositions. 

3. Deliver and sustain innovation discovery capabilities 

• Turn the roadmap into coherent investments: Translate strategic capabilities and building blocks into product roadmaps and clearly defined initiatives with explicit outcomes, dependencies, risks, business-readiness requirements, expected value and investment needs. Manage the approved product and service budget to maximize value. 

• Lead delivery through the D&T operating model: Work across product, delivery, architecture, engineering, data, AI, cybersecurity and external partners to ensure approved initiatives deliver the intended capability to the agreed scope, cost, quality and pace. 

• Maintain reliable operations: Ensure critical discovery, intelligence and knowledge capabilities are secure, compliant, resilient and supportable, with clear ownership, lifecycle plans and service expectations. 

4. Drive adoption and measurable R&D outcomes 

• Embed technology into upstream innovation: Partner with R&D leaders to integrate new tools, data and insights into detection, discovery, research and early innovation decisions, and make the required changes to processes, skills, roles and ways of working. Use adoption and outcome data to improve, accelerate, reshape or stop work, ensuring investments produce measurable value for R&D. 

• Lead through influence and expertise: Build a high-performing global team and an effective network across R&D, D&T and external innovation partners. Bring together scientific, consumer, technology and digital perspectives, and provide credible thought leadership on the future of AI-enabled innovation discovery. 

Qualifications & Experience

• Extensive experience across R&D Tech, digital strategy, category strategy, innovation leadership, data & analytics or IT business partnering (consumer health/CPG/life sciences preferred).
• Track record shaping and delivering tech‑enabled strategies with measurable growth outcomes.
• Executive‑level influencing and communication; experience engaging Haleon executive and scientific leadership teams.
• Depth across digital product development, data platforms/analytics, AI/ML and RWD/sensory ecosystems.

 Job Posting End Date

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.

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