Startscape

Location: Noida Type: Full-Time Work Days: 6 Days / Week Mindset Required: Founder-style ownership, speed, innovation, and zero-compromise quality. Hiring for a high-growth, global skincare brand building Korean-standard formulations with premium actives, clinical performance, and clean aesthetics. We are rapidly expanding into the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and India through Amazon, Shopify, and retail partnerships. We are looking for an R&D Expert who can architect our entire product innovation engine. Role Structure You will lead formulation development, ingredient research, lab trials, stability studies, and global regulatory compliance across all product lines (serums, essences, moisturisers, scalp serums, lip care, soaps, masks, boosters, and more). This is not a routine lab job it is a high-accountability, high-impact role where you will work directly with the founder to create best-in-class products benchmarked against Korean skincare. Key Responsibilities 1. Product Formulation & Development Develop skincare & haircare formulations from scratch (K-beauty style, premium textures). Work with active ingredients like peptides, tranexamic acid, niacinamide, ceramides, PDRN, copper peptides, retinoids, and botanical extracts. Optimize texture, absorption, viscosity, fragrance-free systems, and sensorial experience. Conduct lab batching, prototyping, and iterative improvements. Ensure ingredient stability, solubility, and synergy. 2. Lab Management Manage all raw materials, actives, solvents, excipients, bases, and formulation equipment in a dedicated R&D Lab. Maintain proper documentation, lab hygiene, ingredient logs, and batch records. Create SOPs for every formulation. 3. Stability, Compatibility & Performance Testing Execute stability studies (accelerated and long-term). Conduct pH testing, viscosity, microbial growth analysis, separation, and packaging compatibility checks. Evaluate product performance vs benchmark K-beauty products. 4. Regulatory Compliance (India + Global) Ensure full compliance with: US MoCRA EU Cosmetics Regulation (CPSR, PIF, SCPN) UK SCPN Canada Hotlist compliance Australia AICIS India CDSCO, BIS, labeling norms Responsibilities include: Preparing INCI lists, CAS numbers, and percentage disclosures. Creating safety assessments, usage limits, allergen checks. Reviewing supplier COAs, SDS, MSDS, heavy metal & micro reports. Ensuring Amazon compliance for every country. 5. Manufacturer & Ingredient Vendor Management Collaborate with third-party manufacturers for Production & scale-up. Approve batches, evaluate COAs, and ensure quality consistency. Source high-quality actives (Korean, US, Indian suppliers). Evaluate ingredient grades and authenticity. 6. Claims, Testing & Certifications Guide clinical testing, HRIPT, stability, dermatologically tested claims. Support “non-comedogenic”, “hypoallergenic”, “fragrance-free”, “clinically tested” validations. Approve final packaging claims. Required Experience: Degree in Cosmetic Science / Pharmaceutical Sciences / Chemistry / Biotechnology. 5+ years in cosmetic formulation or R&D lab setting. Strong understanding of emulsion chemistry, surfactants, preservatives, solubility, peptides, and active performance. Experience with global cosmetic regulations is a major advantage. We want someone who is: obsessed with formulation excellence and want to create World Class Products. fast, precise, and innovative comfortable doing trials every day deeply curious about new actives and K-beauty trends able to work with urgency and ownership not afraid to experiment, test, and fix ready to grow with a global D2C brand WHAT YOU WILL GET Freedom to build industry-leading World Class products Access to high-end actives & R&D materials Full support for innovation A high-growth environment Competitive salary + incentives Potential ESOP allocation based on performance and ownership