Senior Legal Counsel, Business Law

Position

At Sephora, beauty is about feeling seen, valued, and empowered, individually and collectively. It is connecting deeply with others, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, unlocking your potential and making a difference every day. Together, we belong to something beautiful.

Job Responsibilities:

I. Strategic Legal Leadership & Team Management:

1. Lead and mentor a high-performing legal team of 1 Legal Counsel and 1 Assistant Legal Counsel, fostering their professional growth, developing their capabilities, and ensuring the seamless delivery of legal services.
2. Act as a strategic legal business partner to the General Counsel, contributing to the overall legal strategy and comprehensive risk management framework for Sephora Greater China.

II. Core Legal Business:

1. Merchandising & Brand Expansion: Provide comprehensive legal support for category/product differentiation and expansion, including managing all legal issues, contract negotiation, and internal legal SOP development for 100+ brands (selective, exclusive, incubation, and C-beauty), along with full life-cycle legal support for House brands.
2. Real Estate & Retail Operations: Deliver pragmatic and solution-oriented legal support to Retail operations, Real Estate & Construction, with a focus on lease negotiation and legal support on operational retail matters across 300+ stores.
3. Finance & Operations: Provide comprehensive legal support for Finance & Operations, including Logistics (warehouse), Finance, and Internal Procurement, to ensure operational efficiency.
4. Advertising & Content Compliance: Lead advertising and content compliance initiatives by formulating clear legal guidance and conducting effective trainings, developing robust internal SOPs and a digital approval system, and strategically managing external law firm resources.
5. Dispute Resolution & Customer Relations: Oversee dispute resolution, customer complaints, and AMR cases handling across all above legal capabilities.
6. HK Market: Act as dedicated legal correspondent for HK market, coordinating with external HK lawyers to provide efficient cross-border legal support.

III. Intellectual Property & Innovation:

1. Local IP Correspondent & Strategist: Serve as the local correspondent, closely partnering with the Global Legal IP team for all IP matters, including IP portfolio management, enforcement, and strategic initiatives. Proactively safeguard local IP assets and discover opportunities from various local business initiatives (from patent and software copyright perspectives).
2. Global Synergy & Local Implementation: Participate in global IP projects, advise on the Greater China legal landscape, coordinate local business departments for local project implementation, and localize Global IP guidelines into IP toolkits (handbooks/templates/legal trainings) and SOPs for well-implemented guidelines in Greater China.
3. Brand Protection & Enforcement: Closely partner with the Global Legal IP team for local infringement case handling and developing brand protection strategies.

IV. Corporate Governance:

1. Corporate Governance Lead: Serve as the local contact window for all routine corporate governance issues for Greater China.
2. Strategic Corporate Law Projects: Support the General Counsel in strategic corporate law projects.

Qualifications:

1. Exceptional Legal Foundation: You possess a robust legal background, evidenced by an undergraduate degree from a top-tier PRC law school and PRC Bar qualification. An LL.M. from a reputable overseas institution would be a distinct advantage, showcasing an international perspective.
2. Strategic Industry Expert (8+ Years): You bring a minimum of 8 years of progressive legal professional experience, with a proven track record of delivering impactful results. Your expertise is deep and specialized within the dynamic retail and cosmetics industries, ideally gained within multinational enterprises operating in Greater China area.
3. Bilingual & Influential Communicator: You are fluent in both English and Mandarin, with exceptional abilities to draft, review, and negotiate complex legal documents. More importantly, you excel at translating legal complexities into clear, actionable business advice that influences outcomes.
4. Unwavering Integrity & Ethical Leadership: You uphold the highest standards of ethics and professional integrity, acting as a trusted advisor who consistently champions Sephora’s values.
5. Collaborative Leader & Business Partner: You are a natural leader with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, capable of mentoring a legal team and building strong, collaborative relationships. You thrive on effectively engaging with diverse stakeholders—from local business functions to Group Legal and global Sephora Legal departments—to drive shared success.
6. Detail-Oriented Strategist with Business Impact: While meticulous in detail, you are also adept at providing strategic, practical, and solution-oriented legal advice that directly supports business objectives.
7. Sharp Commercial Acumen & Pragmatic Problem-Solver: You possess a keen commercial awareness and approach legal challenges with a practical, results-driven mindset, navigating the fast-paced business environment with agility.
8. Agile & Passionate Learner: You are highly adaptable, eager to learn quickly, and resilient. Your passion for the business fuels your ability to thrive in a constantly evolving regulatory and commercial landscape, transforming challenges into opportunities.

Here, you will find:

• Community, in which authenticity is embraced, and the strength of our differences fuels our collective spirit
• Culture of empowerment, learning & growth, that offers you the tools, space and opportunity to learn, innovate and lead
• Work that brings fulfillment. From delighting clients every day, to inspiring our industry at large, every action makes a difference

Join us and belong to something beautiful!