Job: Sr Director of Strategy & Product Development (Beauty / Makeup)

Our Client

Our client for this Senior Director of Strategy & Product Development is a celebrity makeup artist brand now located in the New York City area and recently acquired by a Chinese group.

Objective

The Senior Director of Strategy & Product Development will be responsible for the brand product go-to-market strategy and product development. The role is expected to play a key role in defining brand product strategy, deliver the strategic product initiatives, and manage overall brand product portfolio and new product development. As one of the leadership team, the role is also expected to play an instrumental role in leading and building the creative lab and drive the overall business performance.

Job Description

Go-to-Market Strategy & Product Marketing

• Play a key role in defining Go-to-Market strategy with the senior leadership team. Define and socialize strategic priorities, key initiatives, and multi duration measures of success to enhance the overall customer experience by offering a superior product and more competitive pricing
• Play an instrumental role in managing the ongoing development, refinement, and socialization of the business strategy, focusing on product & market strategy. Work closely with leadership team to establish business wide imperatives, high priority initiatives, and measures of success
• Develop customer segment value propositions, product roadmaps and assortment plans, and go-to-market strategies for all markets. Ensure cross functional alignment to enable the execution of our business plans and drive market leading top and bottom-line growth
• Drive business growth by operating collaboratively in a cross functional and matrixed environment, support a full suite of products distributed through multi-channels distribution across all markets, identify opportunities requiring a strategic view and tailored approach.
• Work and influence across market segments and function on value proposition development, required capability identification, and investment prioritization. Develop and maintain the business perspective on competitive, industry, and consumer trends
• Lead the development of offering, channel, and capability go-to-market strategies across all customer segments to achieve the brand strategic and financial goals and objectives. Inform strategic, operational, and investment activities to ensure the brand position as a market leader and enable future value creation
• Responsible for planning, creating and implementing the overall product marketing strategy. Besides new product development, responsible for setting up the overall strategy for promoting company’s products and offerings. Work with cross-functional teams in messaging, packaging, and delivery of our products to market.
• Support Sales initiatives and strategic partnership efforts in close collaboration with Sales & Marketing team. Work closely with Sales & marketing in developing product marketing and brand marketing plans to ensure brand initiatives and business goals are successfully delivered

Product Development

• Responsible for a business’s product planning and execution all through the lifecycle of the business. Gather and prioritize requirements for the product, defining the vision for the product, and collaborate with other business units to ensure that the financial and consumer satisfaction goals are met. Ensures that the company’s overall strategy and goals are supported by the assortments, the product goals and strategy do not deviate from that of the business.
• Define the product strategy roadmap to ensure a solid product pipeline that meets client needs and business objectives. Establish supporting processes for development, design, and introduction of new products and services.
• Lead strategic planning to achieve business goals by identifying and prioritizing product development initiatives and setting timetables for the evaluation, development of all products.
• In partnership with the company’s leadership, identify opportunities and risks for delivery, including identification of competitive products, opportunities for innovation, and assessment of marketplace obstacles and technical hurdles to the business success.
• Work with leadership team to align business need to drive new product development and product enhancement. Review competitive data on a quarterly basis to present strategic develop initiatives which will position the brand to meet or exceed competitor’s capabilities.
• Lead business case analysis for developing and validating new products. Lead overall product commercialization process and manage the product development budget. Oversee the overall process of new product development from vendors searching, samples creating, cost analysis to the end launching.
• Responsible for implementing new product strategy and lead customer research
• Establish and maintain a team to effectively manage the volume of new products that need to be commercialized and manage the entire product development project.
• Establish and maintaining key performance indicators, and communicating these items, on a regular basis, to the personnel working in this area, to track the status and success of the technical project management function
• Establish the procedures, policies and process within the role as well as interaction with other departments outside of Product Development
• Communicate vision by the use of roadmaps for all products development. Provide leadership for idea generation and concept development initiatives. Obtain feedback on product offerings and bring development projects to project prioritization
• Develop and maintain key alliances with key external & internal stakeholders
• Provide accountability to the organization on defined strategies for the group

Requirements

• +12 years relevant experience in Beauty & Cosmetics with global experience
• Proven success in designing and implementing innovative strategies to enhance the customer experience
• Proven success in defining and executing go-to-market strategy and achieve business goals
• Proven success in designing and implementing product initiatives and developing new products
• Proven success in managing brand product portfolio and full product life cycle in beauty and cosmetics
• Proven execution-oriented people leader with exceptional ability to hire and inspire teams creating high performance
• Consistent track record of exceptional performance, having delivered quantifiable impact on company revenue
• Leadership accountability for developing and implementing overall enterprise business strategies and operational efforts including tools, technologies, training, and departmental initiatives
• Leadership accountability in understanding and managing both top-down and bottom-up approaches
• Ability to lead while adapting to changing business priorities and environments
• Ability to direct multiple key partner functions in a matrixed environment
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Ability to understand and build up business from scratch, willing to work in a start-up environment
• Strong financial and analytical acumen with business experience in a functional area
• Strategic thinking, embedding data & analytics everywhere
• Execution orientation, driving change and innovation
• Consumer-centricity, continuous improvement mindset
• Compelling presentation and communication skills
• Appreciated previous experience:  Biersdorf, Caudalie, Coty, Cover Girl, Drunk Elephant, e.l.f , Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Glossier, Honest Beauty, Interparfums, L’Occitane, L’Oreal, Nyx, Revlon, Urban Decay
• Appreciated previous titles: