Vice President, Visual Merchandising & Store Design

About the Role

Hourglass Cosmetics is a vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand, redefining luxury cosmetics with high-performance products, innovative formulas, and award-winning franchises. Recognized by Forbes, Fast Company, and Time Magazine as one of the most inventive beauty companies, Hourglass leads the industry with its breakthrough products and commitment to animal welfare. Founded in 2004, Hourglass is globally available in 32 markets and over 4,600 doors including Sephora, Ulta, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Space NK, and more. Hourglass became part of the Unilever Prestige division in 2017.

The Vice President, Visual Merchandising & Store Design will lead the global VMSD department, driving operational excellence, scalable growth, and best-in-class design across global retail channels. This leader will implement global design initiatives while owning and overseeing departmental processes, budgets, timelines, seasonal planning, vendor partnerships, and project execution. The VP will optimize the department’s global operating model to enhance workflow efficiency, organizational effectiveness, and increase speed-to-market while protecting the brand image and ensuring consistent execution of luxury brand standards.

Responsibilities

• Own and optimize the operating model for the global VMSD department, driving process improvement, planning cadence, and organizational discipline needed to support a rapidly growing global footprint across retail channels and project types.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team across VMSD functions including Operations, 2D, and 3D design. Provide strategic direction, mentorship, and actionable feedback that elevates design, production, operational output, and team performance.
• Work closely with SVP, Global Brand Image, Store Design & Visual Merchandising to implement brand design initiatives, delivering innovative visual merchandising, architectural store design, and immersive consumer experiences across retail channels. Ensure every touchpoint reflects luxury brand standards while delivering best-in-class execution.
• Lead global VMSD operational planning to support brand expansion, overseeing vendor partnerships, value engineering, and scale efficiencies for new door openings, retail expansions, gondolas, and architectural store environments across all channels.
• Build strong partnerships with global cross-functional partners and regional teams. Drive continuous improvement of project management systems and ways of working between the global office and regional partners, scaling processes to match the pace of global growth.
• Continuously evaluate departmental workflows and cross-functional processes to identify opportunities for greater efficiency, drive operational excellence, and ensure clear accountability for roles, responsibilities, and deliverables.
• Drive streamlined collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders and vendor partners to increase operational efficiency, accelerate execution, and deliver cost-effective solutions.
• Effectively manage priorities, timelines, and stakeholder expectations across multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Oversee the end-to-end process for global seasonal visual merchandising updates, new store openings, and secondary merchandising exposures, including:
  • Cross-functional planning and alignment on global planogram updates by retailer.
  • Program and project management to ensure timelines, approvals, and vendor delivery dates are clearly communicated and tracked, with proactive risk mitigation.
  • Vendor development, design-intent communication, and execution oversight to ensure brand standards are met with best-in-class results.
  • Coordination of shipping, delivery, and installation with retailers, vendors, regional brand partners, and field teams.
• Oversee VMSD departmental financial accountabilities, including strategic planning and management of the global departmental budget; ensure the global budget is consistently tracked, projects meet planned budgets, proactively flag risk, and value-engineer with vendors and designers when needed. Ensure regular updates and monthly YTD reports are issued to senior leadership.
• Meet regularly with commercial teams to understand project forecasts, proactively plan resources, workload, and timelines, and establish and communicate priorities across the organization.
• Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies, and the competitive landscape to inform operational strategy and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Minimum 12 years' experience in Visual Merchandising, Store Design, or related retail operations field (Beauty Industry a plus), including experience leading teams and managing direct reports.
• Proven experience leading global development, execution, and post-market care processes for visual merchandising updates with a beauty or prestige retail brand; deep familiarity reading and managing planograms across retail channels.
• Proven experience owning and managing a global departmental budget, including vendor negotiation and value engineering.
• Proven success building, scaling, and leading process improvement across a global organization.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office, SketchUp, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Excel, and Smartsheet.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail; adaptable, resourceful, and forward-thinking.
• Strong verbal and written communication abilities, with experience presenting to senior leadership.
• Prestige/luxury brand experience strongly preferred.
• Must be able to work from the Corporate Office at least 60% of the time.

Skills

• Strategic: You can translate brand vision into scalable, well-governed global process and can zoom between big-picture strategy and operational detail.
• Communicator: You lead up, down, and across the organization, and build trust with regional partners and vendors alike.
• Organized: You aren't overwhelmed by juggling multiple global projects, budgets, and timelines at once.
• Detail-Oriented and Thorough: You understand the importance of precise, accurate information at a global scale.
• Agile: You adapt well to changing needs and priorities and pivot easily to hit goals and deadlines.
• Problem Solving: You enjoy problem-solving and proactively bring "out of the box" solutions to achieve goals.
• Passionate about Beauty: You are eager to learn and absorb all things related to beauty, brand, and retail operations.

Pay

The expected base salary range for this position is $200,000 to $225,000 per year. The exact base salary is determined by various factors including experience, skills, education, geographic location, and budget. This position is also eligible for participation in the company discretionary bonus plan, based on personal performance and company results.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Life insurance
• Accident insurance
• Critical illness insurance
• Disability insurance
• Retirement savings plans and company match
• Paid family leave
• Education-related programs
• Paid holidays
• Discretionary vacation time