Director, Technical Regulatory & Ingredient Science

Overview

A new, high-impact role as the organization's foremost authority on raw material qualification, ingredient-level compliance and technical documentation across e.l.f. brands and global markets.

What you'll do

• Determine and maintain ingredient-level compliance globally, including new and novel ingredient technology.
• Translate evolving global regulations into actionable guidance for R&D, Innovation and Product Development.
• Lead ingredient-level Canada CEPA/Section 71 Surveys, CARB surveys, US/UK REACH compliance and monitor for new regulations, particularly during global expansion.
• Monitor VOC compliance, ensuring formulations meet applicable VOC limits and that ingredient-level VOC data is available and documented for regulatory submissions and inquiries.
• Oversee IFRA compliance for fragranced products, ensuring fragrance ingredients and concentrations conform to current IFRA Standards and that suppliers provide IFRA certificates and supporting documentation.
• Guide EWG and Sorette certification, evaluating ingredient profiles, flagging restricted ingredients and ensuring the team maintains supporting documentation.
• Serve as the technical point of contact to troubleshoot and resolve documentation gaps, regulatory queries and compliance challenges that arise during registration dossier preparation and submission.
• Partner directly with contract manufacturers and raw material suppliers to secure, review and approve raw material and ingredient documentation.
• Establish and enforce documentation standards and timelines with manufacturers and suppliers to mitigate risk.
• Ensure the team uses internal IT tools to organize and track raw material documents across the portfolio, and leverage IT tools to run metrics.
• Drive workflows and opportunities to manage changes to raw material/ingredients to maintain compliance against global standards.
• Work cross-functionally with Regulatory, R&D, Innovation, Product Development and Legal to provide raw material and ingredient expertise that keeps pace with global demand.
• Embed ingredient expertise into every stage of the product lifecycle.
• Identify ingredient-related challenges early and provide technical solutions that keep projects on track and in compliance.
• Educate and advise internal stakeholders on ingredient science topics, emerging regulations and compliance considerations.
• Assess the chemical properties and structure-function relationships of ingredients across categories to advise on efficacy, performance and required ingredient testing for specifications, certificates of analysis, etc.
• Support the substantiation of formula safety profiles, with particular focus on ingredient-related claims and marketing claims with technical documentation and scientific rationale.
• Ensure ingredient-level data is available and organized to respond to retailer, regulator and consumer inquiries.

What you'll need

• MSc in Chemistry or a closely related scientific discipline.
• 10+ years in a technical regulatory, ingredient science, or raw material compliance role within the Cosmetics or Personal Care industry.
• Deep expertise in cosmetic and skincare ingredient chemistry, including polymer/surfactant chemistry, mineral/pigment chemistry and botanical/natural extract chemistry.
• Deep expertise in global cosmetic ingredient regulations.
• Direct experience working with third-party suppliers and contract manufacturers, particularly in the EU and Asia.
• Proven track record of raw material qualification, supplier documentation management and ingredient-level compliance at scale.
• Strong understanding of how to support innovative ingredient and formula advancements.
• Ability to translate complex technical and regulatory information into clear guidance for non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with proven ability to influence and align cross-functional partners.

Nice to have

• Experience supporting a multi-brand portfolio across color cosmetics, haircare, skincare, medical devices, tools and merchandise.
• Experience scaling a raw material documentation database.
• Knowledge of claim substantiation frameworks and experience supporting marketing and regulatory claims.

Details

• Location: United States, remote.
• Employment includes a work-from-home environment.