Backed by Gauge Capital, Soleil Collective is building a portfolio of high growth beauty brands across sunless tanning, suncare and body care. We combine an entrepreneurial approach with the expertise and operational discipline needed to bring innovative products to market.

Our portfolio includes

• Loving Tan: Prestige, professional quality self tanning products developed on Australia’s Gold Coast.
• Coco & Eve: Tanning, body care and haircare inspired by Bali, known for effective, sensorial products.
• Saltyface: Skin focused, natural looking self tanning designed for everyday use.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Manager, NPD Project Management to own project timelines and keep new product development moving to plan across the Soleil Collective portfolio. The primary purpose of this role is to establish realistic schedules, maintain accountability for every milestone and ensure that internal teams and external partners deliver their work by the agreed deadlines.

Reporting to the Head of Product Development, this person will coordinate projects from approved brief through formulation, lab submissions, product evaluations, testing, packaging, stage gate approvals, commercialization and production readiness. They must be highly organized, persistent in following up, confident managing competing priorities and comfortable identifying and escalating timeline risks before they affect target launch dates.

The Senior Manager will participate actively in vendor and contract manufacturer meetings led by Product Development and other functional leaders. Within those discussions, they will own the timeline agenda, confirm milestone commitments and ensure follow through on all agreed dates, owners and deliverables.

Key Responsibilities

Timeline Management and Deadline Accountability

• Own and actively manage the master NPD timeline for every assigned project, from approved brief to production readiness, including all key activities, deadlines, milestones, approvals and responsible owners.
• Build detailed schedules that work backward from target launch and production dates, with realistic lead times for formulation rounds, sample review, testing, packaging, artwork, regulatory approvals, purchase orders and manufacturing.
• Identify the critical path and dependencies across functions. Ensure each contributor understands what is due, when it is due and how delays affect downstream activities.
• Track deliverables daily in Asana and Excel. Follow up proactively with internal teams, vendors and contract manufacturers to confirm that commitments will be completed on time.
• Lead internal project timeline reviews and the timeline portion of external partner meetings. Document action items, accountable owners, due dates and any revised commitments.
• Flag overdue items and schedule risks early, escalate required decisions to the Head of Product Development and coordinate realistic recovery plans when milestones are at risk.
• Maintain an accurate portfolio level view of project status, upcoming deadlines, critical path risks and decisions required. Provide clear weekly reporting and timely updates on material changes.
• Ensure project changes, updated specifications, added testing or new sample rounds are immediately reflected in schedules and communicated to every affected team.

Product Development Stage Gate Management

• Coordinate the NPD stage gate process by tracking required inputs, reviews, approvals and handoffs at each development milestone.
• Organize milestone and gate readiness reviews, document decisions and ensure that open actions are resolved before a project proceeds to the next stage.
• Maintain clear documentation of project briefs, specifications, change requests, approvals and supporting deliverables.

Lab Submissions, Product Testing and Feedback Tracking

• Maintain one centralized tracker for every formula and packaging submission, including sample version, supplier, date received, reviewers, evaluation due date, feedback received, next action and approval status.
• Coordinate product sample distribution and cross functional product evaluations, ensuring all assigned reviewers receive the correct versions and clear submission feedback deadlines.
• Follow up with individual testers to collect complete, timely feedback. Consolidate comments on performance, application, color, fragrance, texture, packaging functionality and other relevant evaluation criteria.
• Track formulation and packaging revision rounds, sample resubmissions and final decisions, maintaining version control and an accurate history of feedback and approvals.
• Track stability, compatibility, safety, quality and other applicable testing milestones with the appropriate technical owners, escalating delays or missing results.

Vendor and Contract Manufacturer Coordination

• Participate in meetings with contract manufacturers, formulation laboratories, packaging suppliers and testing partners. Product Development or other technical leaders will own the commercial and technical conversations as appropriate.
• Own the timeline and deliverables portion of those discussions, confirm dates and responsible parties, record commitments and follow up until each item is completed.
• Communicate directly with external partners when needed to obtain status updates, chase outstanding samples or documents and confirm timing for submissions, testing, tooling, scale up and production.
• Escalate missed commitments, capacity concerns or schedule changes promptly, with a clear summary of the potential impact and next steps.

Cross Functional Execution and Project Tools

• Coordinate timing and dependencies across Product Development, Brand, Marketing, Packaging, Design, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, Procurement and Supply Chain.
• Build and maintain Asana project plans, task ownership, deadlines, dependencies, reminders and status dashboards as the central source of project information.
• Use Excel to maintain detailed master schedules, sample feedback logs, milestone trackers, risk registers and other reporting tools as required.
• Continuously improve timeline templates, stage gate checklists, submission feedback systems and project management processes to support efficient launches.

Required Qualifications

• 6 to 8+ years of relevant experience in new product development, commercialization, or technical project management within consumer packaged goods (CPG), cosmetics, skincare, personal care, suncare or OTC consumer products.
• Demonstrated ability to own complex product development timelines, manage overlapping projects and consistently drive teams toward agreed milestones and launch dates.
• Hands on experience coordinating physical product development with external contract manufacturers, formulation laboratories, packaging vendors or testing partners.
• Working knowledge of the product development stage gate process, sample development cycles, testing dependencies, commercialization steps and production readiness requirements.
• Strong proficiency in Asana and Microsoft Excel, including schedule tracking, dependencies, reporting, status dashboards and organized project documentation.
• Experience coordinating lab sample submissions, structured product testing and collection of consolidated feedback from multiple cross functional reviewers.
• Excellent follow through, written communication, attention to detail and ability to hold stakeholders accountable without direct reporting authority.
• Comfortable joining vendor and manufacturer calls, asking timeline related questions, documenting deliverables and following up directly on commitments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in beauty, cosmetics, self tanning, skincare, haircare, body care, SPF or other regulated cosmetic and OTC categories.
• Experience working with international suppliers and managing timelines across multiple time zones and markets.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience in product development project management.

What Success Looks Like

Project timelines are complete, accurate and current. Every milestone has a clear owner and deadline. Internal teams and external partners are regularly followed up with, sample evaluations and approvals are completed on time, and potential delays are identified early enough to take corrective action. Projects progress through stage gates and reach production readiness with minimal avoidable schedule slippage.

Why Join Us

You will play a key role in delivering new products across three established beauty brands while working closely with senior product leadership. This position is ideal for a project manager who thrives on keeping teams organized, driving deadlines and turning a complex development pipeline into well executed launches.