Senior Director – U.S. Commercial Operations, Beauty
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: Los Angeles, CAPosition Overview
We are seeking an accomplished commercial operations leader to scale and strengthen a growing U.S. beauty retail business. This senior leadership role will oversee commercial execution across key retail partners—including Target, Ulta Beauty, CVS, and future strategic accounts—while building the team, processes, and operating infrastructure needed to support sustainable growth. This is neither a traditional individual-contributor sales role nor a solely operations-focused position. The successful candidate will bring strong commercial judgment and deep retail operational expertise, translating strategy into disciplined, measurable execution across a complex multi-account business. Title and level may be adjusted based on the selected candidate’s experience and leadership scope.
The Role:
The Senior Director will serve as the day-to-day leader of the U.S. commercial organization, partnering closely with executive leadership, global commercial stakeholders, Finance, Supply Chain, Marketing, and external retail partners. This leader will ensure account teams are highly effective, retail programs are executed successfully, and the operating model is prepared to support continued expansion.
Key Responsibilities:- U.S. Commercial Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and develop the U.S.-based commercial and account operations team.
- Set clear goals, priorities, ownership models, and accountability across the organization.
- Build a high-performing remote team across multiple U.S. locations.
- Develop Account Management and Retail Operations talent through ongoing coaching and performance management.
- Identify organizational needs and support strategic hiring as the business grows.
Retail Account Operations & Execution:
Provide senior oversight for major U.S. retail accounts, including Target, Ulta Beauty, CVS, and other strategic partners.
Drive strong execution of new brand launches, product introductions, promotional programs, and ongoing account operations.
Establish consistent operating rhythms for account planning, forecasting, inventory coordination, retailer requirements, and issue resolution.
Anticipate commercial and operational risks and lead cross-functional plans to address them early.
Ensure account teams operate proactively, with clear visibility into milestones, priorities, and performance.
Retail Operational Excellence:
Create scalable processes, SOPs, account calendars, launch checklists, and operating standards across retail accounts.
Reduce key-person dependency by documenting and institutionalizing critical account knowledge, workflows, and relationships.
Improve reporting and visibility into account performance, risks, retailer deliverables, and business priorities.
Build an operating model that can support multiple brands across multiple major retailers.
Continuously improve execution quality, efficiency, and cross-functional alignment.
Cross-Functional Leadership:
Serve as a key U.S. commercial liaison across Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, and international teams.
Partner with Supply Chain on inventory availability, fulfillment, logistics, and retailer service-level performance.
Partner with Finance on account profitability, forecasting, deductions, budgeting, and business performance.
Collaborate with global commercial leadership on retailer strategy, assortments, negotiations, and growth opportunities.
Ensure consistent communication and coordinated execution across time zones and functions.
Business & Retail Leadership:
Apply strong commercial judgment and a deep understanding of the U.S. beauty retail landscape.
Help define how the organization operates and scales its U.S. retail business.
Develop productive relationships with retail partners while ensuring institutional ownership of key account knowledge and relationships.
Support executive leadership in building the long-term structure, capabilities, and talent pipeline for the U.S. organization.
Qualifications:- 13+ years of experience in beauty, consumer products, retail, or a related industry.
- Demonstrated experience leading, coaching, and developing high-performing teams.
- Significant experience working with major U.S. retailers such as Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, CVS, or comparable national accounts.
- Deep knowledge of retailer operations and vendor-side account management.
- Experience managing complex product launches and multi-SKU retail businesses.
- Strong understanding of forecasting, inventory planning, retailer systems, promotions, deductions, and retail execution.
- Ability to balance high-level commercial strategy with hands-on operational leadership.
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Experience managing distributed or remote teams is strongly preferred.
- Beauty industry experience is strongly preferred.
- Experience working across U.S. and Asian organizations is a plus.
- Korean language proficiency is a plus, but not required.
- Who Will Thrive in This Role
- Leaders who understand the operational work required after a retailer agrees to carry a product or brand.
- Builders who enjoy creating teams, systems, and processes in an evolving organization.
- Strategic operators who move comfortably between long-term planning and immediate execution.
- Professionals who can guide experienced team members in a fast-moving, growth-oriented environment.
- Leaders motivated by meaningful ownership and the opportunity to help build a U.S. organization from the ground up.
