Job Description

Job Description

 

  • The Business Development Manager drives market activation for the company's speciality innovation portfolio across China, Korea and Japan, with a particular focus on the beauty segment. The role calls for a genuine understanding of how beauty products are conceived, formulated and brought to market by brand owners and their ODM partners. That understanding is combined with structured, hunter-style business development.
  • The role owns the front end of the funnel. It identifies and qualifies new opportunities, establishes relationships with multiple contacts at target customers, and stewards each engagement from initial awareness through customer evaluation to commercialisation. Opportunities are handed over to Account Managers with clear and accurate records. Working from within the marketing organisation, the role-holder secures development and testing resources from R&D, Application Development and technical sales, and collaborates with global and regional counterparts, including those in China and Japan. Customer insights and unmet needs gathered in-market feed directly into the Personal Care multigeneration innovation pipeline.
  • This is a permanent position, preferably based in Korea, with no direct reports. It requires approximately 75%+ travel.

Job Requirements

Requirement

  • Generate and qualify targets aligned with territory and segment strategy to deliver future growth
  • Drive market activation across China, Korea and Japan, building multi-contact relationships with beauty brand owners and ODMs beyond procurement, into R&D, Marketing, Operations and Senior Leadership
  • Understand customers' unmet needs and buying processes, and challenge them to consider new ways of winning
  • Present and test value propositions that translate ingredient benefits into formulation performance and product claims
  • Steward customer evaluation, including product testing, in partnership with Strategic Marketing, Application Development, Technical Services, Sales and Product Management
  • Maintain disciplined front-end funnel and opportunity management in Salesforce, ensuring accurate records and seamless handoffs to Account Managers
  • Collaborate with channel partners and distributors through joint business planning, sales and technical enablement, and targeted promotion
  • Plan and host industry and customer events to build relationships and generate project opportunities
  • Capture market insights, trends and unmet customer needs to inform the multigenerational innovation pipeline.

Qualifications

  • Demonstrated understanding of the beauty segment: how brand owners and ODMs develop products; category and consumer trends across skin care, colour cosmetics, sun care and hair care; and how ingredient benefits translate into formulation performance and claims
  • Several years in business development or a similar external customer-facing role in a multinational company, with advanced sales experience and a track record of taking new ingredients or offers from introduction to adoption
  • Strong technical and market strategy, discovery, communication and negotiation skills
  • Proven ability to mobilise cross-functional resources, such as R&D, application and technical sales teams, without direct authority
  • Working experience with Salesforce CRM and structured opportunity management processes
  • Fluent English and Korean, spoken and written
  • Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Business and/or Chemical Engineering or a related field
  • Entrepreneurial mindset, ownership, resilience, and a "never give up" attitude, with willingness to travel approximately 75%+ and to work with a remote headquarters
  • Fluent Korean, and English sufficient to present, persuade and report to a global headquarters and the client

Preferred

  • Personal care or beauty ingredient industry experience (food or pharmaceutical ingredient experience also considered where personal care exposure can be evidenced)
  • Business-level proficiency in Chinese and/or Japanese
  • Master's degree or PhD