Director, Innovation Technology Partnering, L'Oreal Research & Innovation

Director, Open Innovation Technology Partnering, L'Oreal Research & Innovation - Clark, New Jersey

Life is too short for a boring career, so build an extraordinary one with us. We believe your career should spark the same thrill and curiosity as your personal interests. Creativity drives everything we do, turning ideas into meaningful impact. With opportunities across brands, markets, and divisions, your growth knows no boundaries.

Who We Are

Join us at L'Oreal, the world's #1 beauty company present in over 150 markets. For over a century, we have been transforming; fueled by data, tech, innovation, and science. Together, we tackle big challenges while making sure we stay committed to making the world a more inclusive and a better place for everyone & our planet.

At L'Oreal Research & Innovation we are pushing the boundaries of Science & Tech. We invest heavily in cutting‑edge research, leveraging advanced technologies to understand skin, hair, and microbiome, while discovering new active ingredients and launching outperforming formulas. Our 3,500 L'Oreal R&I experts leverage Science & Technology to invent safe, trustable, sustainable & responsible beauty products and experiences that will change people's lives.

Our Open Innovation function for North America R&I exists to keep L'Oreal at the absolute cutting edge of what science and technology can deliver for beauty. We do this by scouting unique and disruptive technologies from external partners – spanning Biotechnology, Biomedical, Biology, Advanced Materials, Devices, Diagnostics, and beyond – building deep, strategically aligned relationships with the startups, VCs, and innovators shaping tomorrow, and managing the end‑to‑end coordination of disruptive projects in taskforce‑mode to bring breakthrough external technologies all the way to the beauty market.

You will be a key contributor to L'Oreal's superior product portfolio pipeline – with a meaningful, tangible impact on consumer lives around the world. Some examples of L'Oreal Open Innovation partnerships that have already changed the game:
Debut Bio's collaboration to bio‑manufacture sustainable and novel ingredients;
Timeline's Mitopure incorporated into Lancôme's Longevity MD skincare range; the Cell Bio Print device for personalized skin analysis (CES 2025); and the Air Light Pro hairdryer using infrared technology for faster, more sustainable haircare (CES 2024).

The Director of Open Innovation Technology Partnering reports to the Head of Open Innovation in R&I for North America, is a full‑time hybrid role, and is based at L'Oreal's state‑of‑the‑art research center in Clark, New Jersey.

• Scout the future of beauty – identifying new, unique, and disruptive technological opportunities from external partners across North America, from early‑stage startups to larger corporates, through a dynamic combination of active networking, ecosystem immersion, and cutting‑edge digital scouting tools.
• Make the calls that shape the pipeline – analyzing and rigorously selecting the most strategically valuable external opportunities in close alignment with internal R&I stakeholders, ensuring every partnership we pursue advances L'Oreal's innovation agenda with purpose and precision.
• Orchestrate cross‑functional transformation – coordinating the cross‑functional project taskforces and global counterparts across Advanced Research, Safety, Regulatory, Claims, Legal, IP, Business Development, Formulation, and Operations to drive the full journey from technology evaluation through to the development phase and commercial readiness.
• Build the contractual foundation for collaboration – working hand‑in‑hand with Open Innovation Business Development, Legal, and IP teams to establish the right partnership frameworks that protect L'Oreal's interests while enabling bold, fast‑moving innovation with external partners.
• Own and grow L'Oreal's innovation ecosystem – building and maintaining a robust, high‑value network of startups, VCs, accelerators, incubators, and key opinion leaders operating across the most relevant scientific fields and industries, and positioning L'Oreal as the partner of choice for the…