Associate Product Development Project Manager

POSITION: Associate Product Development Project Manager DEPARTMENT: Product Development REPORTS TO: Product Development Director LOCATION: Corona, California / Hybrid

The Product Development Project Manager is responsible for managing both new product development and existing product change initiatives across Developlus's hair color, remover, hair care, and styling portfolio. This role serves as the central project leader responsible for coordinating cross-functional activities from concept approval through commercialization while also managing product lifecycle changes after launch. The position owns project execution, Engineering Change Request (ECR) coordination, packaging change management, stage-gate governance, and documentation control activities.

The Project Manager ensures successful launches within established development timelines while maintaining alignment across Product Development, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, Purchasing, Supply Chain, Sales, and external manufacturing partners. The ideal candidate has extensive beauty industry experience and understands the complexities of launching products into major retail channels including Ulta Beauty, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Amazon, and specialty beauty retailers.

The successful candidate must possess strong project management skills, exceptional organizational abilities, and the ability to manage multiple new product launches and existing product updates simultaneously.

• Lead multiple new product development projects through the entire stage-gate process from concept through commercialization.
• Build and maintain detailed project timelines spanning 10-18 month development cycles.
• Establish critical milestones and ensure adherence to launch schedules.
• Monitor project progress and proactively address risks, delays, and resource constraints.
• Develop mitigation plans and contingency strategies for critical project risks.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with brand objectives alongside PD Director.
• Support prioritization and management of the innovation pipeline across multiple brands and product categories.

• Own the changes for the Engineering Change Request (ECR) process for product, packaging, formula, artwork, component, and supplier changes.
• Schedule, facilitate, and document ECR review meetings.
• Coordinate review and approval activities across all impacted departments.
• Track ECR status, approvals, implementation plans, and completion dates.
• Ensure approved changes are communicated and executed according to established procedures.
• Provide ECR status updates and escalation recommendations to leadership.

• Manage updates and revisions to existing products and packaging.
• Prioritize and coordinate existing product changes alongside new product development initiatives.
• Drive implementation of approved formula, packaging, artwork, supplier, specification, and process changes.
• Ensure all changes comply with stage-gate requirements and change-control procedures.
• Maintain visibility of all active product and packaging change initiatives.

• Coordinate activities across Product Development, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Operations, Quality, Purchasing, and Sales.
• Lead weekly cross-functional project meetings and communicate project status updates to core team.
• Manage action items, deliverables, and accountability across all departments.
• Escalate issues and recommend solutions to the Director of Product Development.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, and project management best practices across cross-functional teams.

• Support development of innovative beauty products across hair color, hair care, styling, and personal care categories.
• Coordinate formulation development, testing, stability programs, and product evaluations alongside the Product & Education Lead.
• Track product samples, approvals, and development revisions.
• Support competitive benchmarking and innovation pipeline initiatives.
• Proactively research, track, and analyze new product launches across the beauty market, identifying key trends, innovations, and competitive insights.
• Monitor emerging ingredient, formulation, packaging, and consumer trends to support innovation strategy.
• Attend supplier presentations, industry events, and trade shows as appropriate to identify new technologies and…