Assistant Category Manager

Context 

Sephora, a division of LVMH – Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton global luxury leader, is a global leader in beauty retailing. It successfully operates more than three thousand points of sale across Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Its aim is to animate the most loved beauty community in the world. 

Sephora South East Asia is a high growth division of leading global beauty retailer, Sephora. Our teams run omni-channel retail businesses in Singapore, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia, franchise operations in India & Indonesia and we run ecommerce only businesses (the first in the world globally for Sephora!) in The Philippines, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Our success is built on innovation, a unique product portfolio, market leading digital capability, and our exceptional people! With ambitious growth plans, we are always looking for talented people who are passionate about building businesses and developing themselves and our customers' experience. 

Overview 

As an Assistant Manager, Category Management, you will manage a portfolio of brands within your category to drive differentiation with key brand groups, optimising growth, space productivity, profitability, and strong 360 campaigns for category penetration. This role includes managing brand relationships, commercial negotiations, joint business planning (including animations), assortment optimisation, productivity, clear pricing principles, and a robust calendar for existing brands and new brand launches. Additionally, you will collaborate with Supply Chain for effective planning and forecasting. 

Job Responsibilities  

Category Strategy  

• Contribute to the development of ANZ category strategy based on market trends, consumer insights, and sales data, to identify white space, optimize growth, space productivity, profitability and strong 360 campaigns to support key natures to gain category penetration 

• Manage communication with Market Merchandising teams to ensure effective collaboration in implementing category strategy 

• Own brand portfolio, track omni-channel category performance (by channel, markets, segments, margin, productivity, brand conversion & stocks management) vs set KPIs 

Portfolio and Brand Management  

• Drive differentiation with key brand groups, build and maintain strong supplier relationships  

• Manage commercial negotiations 

• Conduct joint business planning (including animations) with assigned brand groups, optimise assortment and productivity, and establish clear pricing principles 

• Develop a robust calendar of existing brands and plan meaningful and incremental new brand launches 

Assortment Planning  

• Collaborate with brands to determine the product assortment for omni-channel, considering customer preferences, market trends, and brand positioning 

• Work closely with brands and internal stakeholders on planning, coordination & execution of launch plan for assigned brands – annual launch plan and new listing process 

Inventory Management  

• Collaborate with Supply Chain on effective planning and forecasting to achieve brand targets and healthy stock levels 

We would love to hear from you if you are/have...  

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics or a related field 

• Minimum 4 years of experience in category management, retail buying, or a related field 

• Expertise in building category strategies based on market trends, consumer insights, and data analytics 

• Proficiency in negotiation of commercial agreements 

• Good communication skills with ability to present effectively 

• Stakeholder management and influencing skills in a multicultural environment 

• Experience in developing and implementing category strategies to drive growth, profitability and market penetration 

• Experience in managing brand portfolios, including supplier relationships, commercial negotiations and joint business planning 

• Experience in assortment optimization, pricing strategies and managing product lifecycles 

• Experience in collaborating with Supply Chain teams for effective planning and forecasting 

While at Sephora you’ll enjoy...  

• The people: You will be surrounded by some of the most talented, supportive, and kind leaders and teams – people you can be proud to work with.  

• The learning: We invest heavily in training for our leaders and store associates. Not just product knowledge, but building a personalized career plan with you so you continue to evolve and build your skills.  

• The culture: As a leading beauty retailer, backed by the LVMH luxury brand, our reach is broad and our impact is global. Yet there’s always room to explore. It’s in the Sephora DNA to champion a world of inspiration and inclusion where everyone can celebrate their beauty. 

Sephora is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace for all. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, advancement, or other employment practices. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating and fostering an inclusive environment for all employees. 

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.