Digital & Tech Business Partner - Category & Advanced Research
Haleon
Elmbridge, England, United Kingdom
Contract
Competitive
RemoteExecutive
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
Haleon is hiring a Director, IT Business Partner – Category Growth & advance technology Future Horizons to translate category ambition into technology reality. You will partner with Global Category Leads, R&D, Markets and D&T to build multi‑year digital and data roadmaps that accelerate innovation and growth across Oral Health, VMS, Pain, Respiratory, Digestive Health and Skin. You’ll lead Future Horizons technologies (RWD, AI/ML, sensory/virtual testing, external innovation systems), shape portfolio investments with Strategy and Finance, and act as the enterprise integrator across scientific, commercial and technology teams. We’re looking for a senior techno‑functional leader with deep experience in digital products, data/AI and consumer health/R&D ecosystems—someone who can influence executive stakeholders, drive adoption and deliver measurable business impact.
Key Responsibilities
Category Strategy & Tech Enablement: Serve as the primary IT Business Partner and unified owner at the category interface in enabling capabilities required to support whitespace identification, innovation prioritization, consumer insights integration, and functional investments.
Translate category strategies into multi‑year digital & technology roadmaps spanning platforms, data assets, AI/ML, automation, and advanced analytics.
Identify digital enablers, capability gaps, and cross‑category reuse opportunities needed to power innovation pipelines across categories - Oral Health, VMS, Pain, Respiratory, Digestive Health, and Skin.
Shape category specific value cases integrating consumer, scientific, and technology insight.
Ensure all roadmaps align with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and data governance standards.
Breakthrough and competitive business-Technology innovation thought Leadership: Connects breakthrough sciences to scalable tech to minimize fragmentation and maximize value creation.
Lead the identification and evaluation of category enabling futuristic digital platform and services including Rx to OTC switches opportunities (AI/ML, digital health, advanced data platforms, sensors, virtual testing, etc.) that support Real World Data, Consumer Sensory, and External Innovation.
Partner with RWD and Data Science teams to define technology needs for acquisition, integration, and analysis of real-world data (ideation, concepts, claims, packaging innovations, panels, digital health, etc.).
Support Consumer Sensory and Insights teams with digital tools for sensory panels/Observatory, experiment design, virtual shelves, and preference modelling; ensure outputs are integrated into data products used by R&D and Category teams.
Work with External Innovation team to define systems supporting opportunity scouting, evaluation, due diligence, and partnership management.
Ensure future‑horizon insights are incorporated into category strategies, R&D and Digital & Tech planning cycles, and enterprise technology roadmaps.
Cross‑Functional stakeholder influence and Techno‑Functional Leadership: An enterprise growth role elevating technology as strategic growth lever going beyond the enabler and support function by partnering globally, shaping long range tech investment, and driving measurable growth outcome.
Act as the “connective tissue” across R&D, Category, Commercial, Regulatory, Medical, Supply Chain, and Digital & Tech to align on technology‑enabled innovation priorities.
Facilitate and chair cross‑functional forums to assess technical feasibility, digital readiness, data requirements, and resource implications for key initiatives.
Negotiate platform prioritization, sequencing, and trade‑offs with senior leaders, balancing short‑term delivery and long‑term strategic investments.
Build strong, trust‑based relationships across scientific, commercial, and technology stakeholders to drive adoption of digital and data‑enabled ways of working.
Portfolio, Investment & Roadmap Governance: Provides senior governance required to harmonize platform strategies, avoid duplicative investments, improve sequencing and prioritization, strengthening interoperability across categories and markets.
Partner with R&D Portfolio, Digital & Tech Portfolio Management, Finance, and Strategy to shape a category‑aligned technology investment portfolio across Growth and Future Horizons.
Apply consistent evaluation frameworks that consider business value, technical complexity, re‑use of platforms, risk, and time‑to‑impact.
Contribute to annual operating plans and long‑range planning with clear technology and data perspectives for each category and Future Horizons initiative set.
Define, track, and communicate value realization metrics for key initiatives (e.g., speed to insight, concept cycle time, launch success, forecast accuracy, ROI on external innovation).
Product Ownership & Delivery Oversight: With accelerating AI, digital health, consumer-insights technologies and sensory science innovation, this role ensures Haleon leads and able to match emerging tech with market opportunities leading to uniquely differentiated competitive advantage. The role exclusively owns the product management of Innovation PPM platform – core to innovation prioritization and real time /predictive performance tracking and feedback.
Serve as senior product owner for key core enabling digital products (RWD platforms, sensory & insights tools, external innovation systems, category superiority dashboards etc. to name a few. The role collaborates with rest of the product function to ensure there is no overlap and redundancies and owns digital products to be established as tech product line over a long period of time such as formulation modeler, AI scientific assistants, Virtual product testers and related agentic orchestration.
Work closely with Product, Data & Analytics, Architecture, Cybersecurity, and Delivery teams to prioritize backlogs, manage dependencies, and ensure timely, high‑quality delivery.
Ensure solutions are designed for scalability, interoperability, and reuse across categories and markets.
Drive robust change management and adoption plans, including training, communications, and ongoing user engagement.
Technology Insight & External Ecosystem Engagement
Monitor emerging technologies, digital health trends, data science advancements, consumer‑tech innovation, and competitors’ digital moves relevant to Haleon’s categories.
Engage with external partners, vendors, startups, academic institutions, and innovation networks to identify new digital and technology opportunities.
Bring forward curated insights and options that shape category strategies, Tier 3 /breakthrough innovation bets, and R&D Digital & Tech exploration.
Knowledge, Skills & Competencies (Who you are)
Techno‑Functional Expertise
Deep understanding of digital product development, data platforms, analytics, and R&D / consumer health technology ecosystems.
Strong familiarity with Real World Data, consumer insights/sensory science platforms, and/or external innovation systems.
Ability to translate category, consumer, and scientific needs into technology requirements, data models, and platform strategies.
Skilled in assessing technical feasibility, architectural implications, and implementation risk.
Strategic & Analytical Strength
Proven ability to synthesize complex scientific, commercial, and technical inputs into clear strategic recommendations and roadmaps.
Experience with opportunity assessment, scenario planning, and value‑case development for technology‑enabled initiatives.
Strong commercial acumen and understanding of category economics, innovation funnels, and portfolio tradeoffs.
Leadership & Influence
Demonstrated ability to influence and challenge senior leaders in a matrixed, global organization.
Exceptional stakeholder management, negotiation, and consensus‑building skills.
Executive presence with strong communication, storytelling, and framing capabilities; able to engage both technical and non‑technical audiences.
Innovation & Future‑Horizon Mindset
High curiosity and foresight to spot emerging digital, data, and technology trends and translate them into practical options for Haleon.
Comfortable operating in ambiguity, testing hypotheses, and shaping new capability spaces.
Experience working with innovation ecosystems, digital health solutions, or external technology partnerships is highly desirable.
Qualification & 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.
Success Measures (First 12–18 Months)
Clear, approved multi‑year digital & data roadmaps for Category Growth and Future Horizons.
RWD, Consumer Sensory, and External Innovation teams use modern, integrated tools as part of their standard ways of working.
Demonstrable impact of digital and data initiatives on category growth, innovation hit‑rate, and speed of decision‑making.
Category and R&D leaders regard the Director, IT Business Partner – Category Growth & Future Horizons as a trusted, strategic advisor and key member of the extended leadership team.
Job Posting End Date
2026-06-27Haleon 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.
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.
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.