Arcaea is a biology-first beauty company building a new ingredient toolset for the beauty and personal care industry. We are creating pioneering ingredients, products, and stories accessible uniquely through biology.
Arcaea is seeking an experienced Cosmetic Formulation Chemist to join our team and play a critical role in developing world class products containing our novel ingredients.
No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks slightly different from what we’ve identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we’d love to learn more about you!
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead the formulation of world class skincare products, including cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, sunscreens, and other topical applications while ensuring that formulas align to project briefs, adhere to prescribed timetables, and fall within required cost targets.
- Develop and optimize formulations at the bench in close collaboration with the Future Society™Director of Product Development and the novel ingredients formulation chemistry team, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, safety standards and that meet manufacturing capabilities.
- Identify technical insights on new formulas to establish a clear scientific mode-of-action that builds into strong product concepts and claims and support the Future Society product brief
- Conduct stability and compatibility testing of formulations, evaluate the performance, efficacy, and safety, and make necessary adjustments.
- Support on packaging selection.
- Evaluate formula design and performance of competitive products
- Drive continuous improvement and innovation in product formulations, staying on top of new technologies and scientific advancements in the cosmetic industry.
- Conduct research on new raw materials, key active ingredients, and technologies to enhance product performance and market appeal.
- Generate new ideas for product concepts and assess them for implementation.
- Collaborate with quality control to establish and maintain product quality standards.
- Troubleshoot laboratory and production batch issues, including attendance in regular meetings for direct communication with relevant outside contract manufacturers.
- Actively formulate to anticipate and avoid potential scale-up and manufacturing challenges by establishing batch making procedures and define product specifications for transfer to scale up pilot line testing
- Work closely with contract manufacturers to tech transfer and scale up formulations from lab to production. This will require travel to be onsite with the CM for pilot batches and mass production.
- Manage multiple projects simultaneously, delivering high quality products on time.
- Prepare and maintain accurate documentation including formulation records, technical data sheets, formulation records, batching/mixing instructions, and SOPs.
- Engage with customers and research social media to understand their needs, improving products, and identifying white space.
- Stay up to date with industry trends, regulatory changes, and advancements in skin- and suncare science.
- Support identifying, selecting, verifying, and working closely with contract manufacturers.
WHAT WE SEEK:
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Cosmetic Science, or a related field
- Must have 5+ years of beauty/personal care downstream product formulation expertise, with at least 5 years of experience in skincare formulations.
- Familiarity with function and technical challenges of various packaging delivery systems; pump sprays, tubes, squeeze bottles, air-less packs, lotion pumps, etc. to inform product packaging selection
- Proven track record of developing successful skincare products from concept to market.
- 1+ years of experience at a contract manufacturer is preferred.
- Passionate about formulation chemistry and spending time at the bench creating new products.
- Experienced with tech transfers, including scaling up to large scale manufacturing equipment.
- Passion and knowledge about the beauty industry and a belief in the biology-first approach
- Deep understanding of key active ingredients, raw materials, product development, product efficacy/performance, and regulatory compliance.
- Possesses a consumer-first and global mindset.
- High emotional intelligence and self-awareness, which encourages positive energy, kindness, and passion throughout the organization.
- Persuasive written and oral communication skills with the ability to distill and articulate key messages to executives and stakeholders.
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, negotiation, problem-solving, and influencing skills to work effectively with all internal stakeholders.
- Self starter who loves working in an agile, startup environment.
- Familiarity with regulatory requirements for cosmetic product and raw materials in major markets (e.g., FDA, MOCRA, NA, EU in priority)
- Familiarity with GLP, cGMP, and QA/QC personal care industry best practices.
- Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively.
- Strong project management skills and the ability to prioritize tasks effectively amongst multiple ongoing projects.
- Knowledge of sustainable and eco-friendly ingredient sourcing.
- Experience with mentoring others is a plus.
- Travel requirement: 10%
The full compensation package is based on candidate experience.
Pay Range
$125,000 - $140,000 USD
We feel that it’s important to point out the obvious here – there’s a serious lack of diversity in both the scientific fields and beauty industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. We are deeply committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion in all its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.
No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we’ve identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we’d love to learn more about you!
We’re working with the powerful biological engineering platform at Ginkgo Bioworks, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can – and will – impact people around the world. Ginkgo and Arcaea care about how this platform and the products created are used. Having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it’s something we’ll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it’s critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology in every industry.
We are committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion in all its practices. It is the policy of Arcaea to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.
Agency and Third Party Recruiter Notice: Agencies that submit a resume to Arcaea must have a current executed Arcaea Agency Agreement executed by the Director, People Operations. In addition Agencies may only submit candidates to positions for which they have been invited to do so by an Arcaea Recruiter. All resumes must be sent to the Arcaea Recruiter under these terms or they will not be considered.
If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, or you require religious accommodation, and you wish to discuss potential accommodations related to applying for employment at our company, please contact recruiting@arcaea.com.
Arcaea participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility.
Disclaimer: This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee.