Program Manager, Product Development

Role Summary

Vacation® is looking for a Program Manager, Product Development to keep its growing product pipeline—new formulas, formula renovations, and displays, merch, and kits—on track. This person will be a close cross-functional partner to Product Development, working alongside Product Marketing, Regulatory, Quality, Packaging, Procurement, and Operations, plus external formulation and manufacturing partners. They’ll own the master timelines across the NPD portfolio and run the Product Council cadence, the forum where the business makes go/no-go and prioritization calls. This is a role for someone who likes structure but isn’t precious about it, and who can build the tracker, run the meeting, and chase the vendor, while mastering the real complexities of launching an OTC (over-the-counter) drug category.

Responsibilities

• Independently manage the master timelines for the NPD portfolio, including new formulas, formula renovations, and NPD-related displays, merch, and kits, from concept through regulatory clearance, packaging, testing, and production handoff across multiple concurrent projects.
• Serve as the day-to-day cross-functional partner to Product Development, keeping Product Marketing, Regulatory, Quality, Packaging, Procurement, and Operations aligned on scope, timing, and open decisions.
• Run the Product Council cadence: set the agenda, bring the timeline and open decisions into the room, and help the group land firm go/no-go and prioritization calls.
• Monitor vendor and lab milestones, including formulation trials, stability and clinical testing, packaging tooling, and production runs, and hold internal teams and external partners accountable to committed dates.
• Track and escalate risks and dependencies before they become launch delays, flagging tradeoffs to leadership with a clear recommendation, not just a red flag.
• Maintain the single source of truth for launch status, including timelines, budgets, sample tracking, and approval sign-offs, so anyone on the team can see where a project stands without a status meeting.
• Manage FDA OTC monograph and compliance checkpoints with Regulatory and Quality, keeping documentation and approvals in lockstep with the development timeline.
• Partner with Product Marketing to keep launch dates, claims, and go-to-market milestones in sync with retailer commit dates and packaging lead times.
• Coordinate with Finance, Planning, and Procurement on inventory and production scheduling as programs move toward launch.
• Run scenario analysis on the master timelines, such as a formula failing stability, a component mold slipping a week, or a lab falling behind, and bring options, not just problems, to the Product Council.
• Continuously improve how the team runs launches, with better templates, tighter stage gates, and clearer handoffs, as the pipeline scales.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
• 5-7 years project management experience in product development within skincare, cosmetics, or consumer packaged goods.
• A real, working understanding of the complexities of OTC product development, including FDA monograph requirements, testing and documentation timelines, and how regulatory milestones shape and constrain the master timeline.
• A track record of project managing complex, multi-workstream launches from concept to shelf, with real ownership of timelines and cross-functional accountability.
• Sharp organizational instincts: you build the system before you need it, and you know the difference between a risk worth escalating and noise.
• Strong stakeholder management: you can hold a formulator, a packaging vendor, and a co-founder accountable to the same date, in the tone each one needs.
• Fluency in Asana (our main project management tool) plus Excel/Sheets and slide decks sharp enough for leadership readouts.
• A bias toward clear, low-drama communication: you’d rather over-communicate a slipping date than surprise anyone with one.
• Assertive in your communication style.
• Excited to grow Vacation® into a household name and have fun in the process.
• You use sunscreen.