Director, In-Store Merchandising Design

Job Title: Director, In-Store Merchandising Design

Division: Consumer Products Division

Location: Hudson Yards, NY

Reports To: Vice President, Shopper Experience & Logistics

Who We Are: For more than a century, L’Oréal has devoted its energy, innovation, and scientific excellence solely to one business: Beauty. Our goal is to offer each and every person around the world the best of beauty in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility to satisfy all beauty needs and desires in their infinite diversity.

The Opportunity: The Director of In-Store Merchandising Design shapes how L’Oréal’s beauty portfolio comes together in retail at the category and store level, where the biggest opportunities to elevate the shelf experience live. This role is L’Oréal CPD’s in-house store design authority, bringing together retailer vision, shopper insight, and brand priorities into merchandising concepts that feel cohesive, elevated, and unmistakably beauty. This role weighs each program’s potential, knowing which should be pushed further and which needs restraint, while leveraging agency partners and creative leadership to make it real.

What You Will Do Brief Intake, Prioritization & Strategic Alignment

• Independently receive and triage merchandising design briefs from Marketing, Category, and Sales teams — and, over time, directly from retailers
• Assess fit against L’Oréal’s merchandising roadmap; decide whether a project moves forward, needs further discussion, or should be limited or deferred
• Manage a high volume of concurrent projects with minimal oversight, prioritizing based on strategic value

Design Ownership & Agency Management

• Own the end-to-end creative workflow for category- and store-wide merchandising concepts, balancing retailer vision, L’Oréal brand priorities, and shopper insight
• Brief and direct a diverse roster of external agencies, matching the right resource to each project
• Own and allocate a dedicated agency/production design budget based on project priority
• Own the design-to-production handoff, and once in production, shift to an informed, not responsible, party

Retailer & Stakeholder Engagement

• Present concepts directly to retailers, whether responding to their requests or supporting L’Oréal-led pitches
• Build credibility as a trusted design authority, influencing both internal stakeholders and retail partners at the highest level

Market & Category Fluency

• Maintain deep fluency in mass beauty merchandising, including promotional vs. permanent fixture dynamics and shopper traffic patterns
• Bring perspective on how luxury, Asian, and other global beauty markets shape mass-market trends
• Apply a digital/social lens to physical shelf design for inspiration and integration
• Translate data-driven insight into tangible in-store design outcomes

Requirements

• 8-10 years of experience in retail design, in-store merchandising, or related creative/strategic roles; American mass-market retail experience required
• Bachelor’s degree preferred — Design, Marketing, or Category Management with a merchandising focus are all considered strong fits
• Demonstrated experience with promotional vehicles, and permanent fixture merchandising within U.S. mass retail
• Proven project management experience, specifically balancing organizational ambition, retailer timelines, and vendor/agency production schedules
• Experience managing agency relationships and negotiating rates/budgets
• Familiarity with some design software (e.g., Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp, or similar) preferred. Comfort using tools to review and refine agency-delivered concepts, not build from scratch
• Willingness to travel to retailer partners as needed

Professional Competencies

• Discerning design eye: a genuine passion for presentation and a critical, informed perspective on creative, as either a practicing creative or an inspired, articulate critic
• Independent operator: able to manage a high volume of incoming work, exercise judgment on prioritization, and execute without close oversight
• Strategic yet grounded: balances an enthusiasm for bold, ambitious concepts with a practical, realistic sense of what’s achievable at mass-market shelf
• Visionary and adaptable: able to build a clear point of view and realize it across multiple, varied project scenarios
• Strong communicator and influencer, able to convince and inspire colleag…