Sr. Manager, Sebastian

About the role

The Senior Marketing Manager, Sebastian Professional, is responsible for setting global haircare strategy, driving product innovation, and executing marketing campaigns. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Global Marketing, this role plays a critical part in shaping the brand's future.

Responsibilities

• Translate professional insights, cultural trends, and consumer behavior into differentiated product concepts, positioning, and global campaigns.
• Act as a senior marketing thought partner, shaping brand strategy and long-range innovation pipeline in close collaboration with senior brand leadership.
• Own portfolio strategy including new launch forecasting, sizing, and business case development.
• Present clear recommendations to leadership, challenging briefs and sharpening facts to drive confident decision-making.
• Stay deeply connected to pop culture, music, and emerging trends to inform brand relevance and creative direction.
• Lead end-to-end new product development in the styling category, building strong product briefs and data-driven business cases aligned to brand, performance, and financial targets.
• Own stage-gates for cross-functional alignment to deliver high-performance, margin-accretive innovation.
• Partner with R&D and Supply Chain to manage development timelines and ensure on-time launches meeting cost of goods benchmarks (COGs).
• Communicate project status, risks, and key decisions clearly to internal and external stakeholders.
• Co-develop new salon service concepts with the Professional Education team to inspire stylists and drive in-salon excitement.
• Partner with Consumer Market Research to brief, test, and validate concepts with professional stylists and research partners.
• Craft market-leading product positioning marketing concepts and compelling claims for new launches.
• Partner closely with Packaging to lead pack briefs, color and material direction, and artwork routing, ensuring packaging delivers on brand vision, shelf impact.
• Lead briefs for go-to-market planning and launch execution in collaboration with Brand Activation and global markets in order to drive integrated 360 marketing strategies that win with both professional stylists and consumers.
• Manage clear, strategic creative briefs aligned with brand strategy across salon, prestige, e-commerce, and social channels.
• Craft compelling marketing copy and positioning across platforms.
• Own merchandising strategy for new launches, including defining merchandising concepts and leading the development of merchandising copy that clearly communicates product benefits and brand positioning in-salon and across channels.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in brand management, product development, or marketing (haircare or beauty industry experience required)
• Proven track record launching new products
• Must have prior project management experience and know how to anticipate and integrate workflows
• Versed in managing cross-functional teams, serving as a role model
• Strong strategic thinking, ability to deduce conclusions from market research
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and project management abilities
• Passion for professional haircare and beauty, creativity, and understanding of professional and consumer needs
• High attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities
• Financial acumen (budget management, business cases, P&Ls)
• Advanced presentation skills and storytelling for senior level audiences
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, or related field; MBA a plus

Benefits

Wella Company offers a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, life and disability insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO), and participation in the E-Verify Program to confirm eligibility to work in the United States. The company also participates in the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision.