Director, Product Development

POSITION:

Director, Product Development

US:

In 2010 we started making products to protect our friends and families from the sun. Since then, we’ve grown a bit, but we haven’t changed. Our Cocoa Beach office is an old Florida beach house off A1A. Our Moonlight Beach office is in the groovy little town of Encinitas, California, just a block away from the sand. And like any good beach day, everyone’s welcomed to the bonfire. We care about our people and making more meaningful connections outside. We make products the way we like them, and we hope you like them too.

Summary:

The Director, Product Development –serves as the leader for Sun Bum’s innovation pipeline and drives innovation throughout the entire product lifecycle from concept to commercialization and post launch analysis. This role leads cross functional innovation efforts from concept through commercialization, ensuring products meet Sun Bum’s high standards for safety, compliance, performance, and brand identity.

The Director leads and mentors the Product Development team, cultivating a culture of curiosity, operational excellence, and consumer-backed decision making. This leader is a key voice in shaping brand growth, driving transformational innovation, and ensuring Sun Bum remains ahead of industry, regulatory, and competitive shifts.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Innovation

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• Own the end-to-end product innovation strategy, ensuring alignment with brand, category, consumer, and business goals.
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• Partner with cross functional teams to drive the long-range product roadmap, using market insights, emerging technologies, trend analyses, and retail/channel strategies to identify new opportunities.
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• Establish product development vision, standards, processes, and best practices to scale innovation across categories.
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Product Development & Commercialization

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• Oversee the full lifecycle of product development—from initial brief through launch and postlaunch evaluation.
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• Collaborate with cross functional teams to guide product briefs including consumer insights, claims, channel needs, cost targets, SRP, margin expectations, sustainability considerations, and testing requirements.
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• Ensure best-in-class clinical, performance, and safety testing to meet or exceed regulatory and brand requirements.
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• Drive timely issue resolution related to design, raw materials, quality, manufacturing, or regulatory constraints.
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Cross Functional & External Leadership

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• Serve as the primary product development partner for Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, Regulatory, RD&E, Operations, and Creative.
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• Lead cross functional project teams, ensuring timelines, deliverables, and communication touchpoints are clear, proactive, and transparent.
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• Oversee relationships with manufacturers, testing facilities, and innovation consultants.
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Team Leadership & Talent Development

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• Lead, develop, and inspire the Product Development team, fostering a high-performance, people-first culture.
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• Build team capabilities in innovation strategy, testing, documentation, project management, and cross functional influence.
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Operational Excellence

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• Ensure sample management processes are streamlined, documented, and efficiently executed.
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• Oversee test panels and power user groups for every product; translate insights into actionable improvements.
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• Manage escalations for deviations from briefs, including risk assessment, cost impact, and business implications.
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• Ensure data integrity within the PLM drive a consistent single source of truth.
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Required Skills / Experience / Competencies:

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• Bachelor’s degree in science or related field (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering) preferred.
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• 7-10+ years’ experience in product development, ideally in OTC and Personal Care Products.
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• Experience leading a team, developing talent, and being an effective, people-first manager.
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• Demonstrated success defining and launching world-class products.
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• Strong technical knowledge of formulation, packaging, safety testing, regulatory standards, and category specific requirements.
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• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
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• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
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• Great attention to detail and a result driven approach
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• Be able to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
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Preferred Skills / Experience / Competencies:

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• Experience in consumer goods, with a heavy focus on suncare, skincare, personal care, or OTC categories.
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• Worked and is familiar with Coptis, ASANA is a plus
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Job Requirements & Compensation:

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• Full Time, on-site
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• Up to 25% overnight travel
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• $142,480-$187,005 is the salary range for this position. It represents a portion of the overall package, and includes flexibility based on the candidate's qualifications.
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Other duties, responsibilities and activities may change or be assigned

at any time with or without notice as assigned by the Manager. The job description

does not constitute a contract of employment and the position remains at-will.

Disclaimer: Please note, if you are selected to have a chat with us, you will receive an email from a @sunbum.comdomain. Anyone else is an imposter. Lame. Be aware of phishing emails/text messages. Sun Bum will never text or WhatsApp you about your candidacy or ask for personal, confidential information beyond what’s typically required for a job application. Double lame.