Category Manager - 12 Month FTC

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.

The Opportunity

At Sephora UK, we’re driven by the mission to create the most loved beauty community in the world. We’re looking for a Category Manager to join us on a 12-month fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave. In this role, you will be the champion and owner of your assigned category, responsible for delivering a compelling, customer-first range that aligns with our brand promise. You will work closely with brand partners to maximise marketing plans, optimise sales potential and ensure Sephora remains differentiated and competitive.

This is an exciting opportunity to combine commercial strategy with true beauty expertise. You will partner with internal teams and external brands to deliver exceptional results in both stores and online, ensuring our customers can always discover, love and shop the very best in beauty.

You Will Also Be Responsible For:

• Tracking omni-channel category performance against set KPIs, monitoring trends and making recommendations to drive growth.
• Analysing weekly and monthly sales data at brand and category level, identifying risks and opportunities, and building action plans to drive results.
• Conducting market mapping to identify new brands and preparing business cases for new partnerships.
• Leading new brand set-up and launch planning with key internal stakeholders.
• Negotiating and reviewing trading terms and contracts, ensuring productive assortments aligned with our commercial goals.
• Building and executing annual brand plans, including launch calendars, sales targets, and joint business plans with suppliers.
• Managing brand execution on our ecommerce platforms and working with digital teams to optimise online performance.
• Planning and securing animation opportunities in-store and online to deliver customer-centric, commercially effective campaigns.
• Partnering on new store floorplans and existing store retrofits to optimise brand placement and space productivity.
• Collaborating on planogram management, stock management, order planning and delivery schedules to ensure strong execution.
• Supporting the Senior Category Manager in key meetings, deputising where needed and overseeing the workload of Assistant Category Managers and Category Administrators.
• Supporting and developing junior team members to achieve their goals and drive business success.

What You'll Bring

You will have proven experience in the beauty industry with strong commercial acumen. You know how to build and maintain outstanding brand relationships, negotiate successful deals and manage categories for maximum impact. You will be analytical, detail-oriented and passionate about delivering best-in-class customer experiences across every touchpoint. Your collaborative mindset, excellent communication skills and adaptability will enable you to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment where priorities can shift and creativity is highly valued.

Our Ideal Candidate Will Also Possess:

• Significant beauty industry experience with 6+ years in buying or brand/category management.
• Confidence in analysing data and translating insights into commercial action.
• A deep understanding of the beauty industry, ecommerce and high street retail.
• Strong relationship-building skills with brands and partners at all levels.
• Comfort with change and ambiguity, with a self-motivated and proactive approach.
• Meticulous attention to detail and a drive for continuous improvement.
• A collaborative spirit, ready to partner across departments to achieve shared goals.
• Creativity and problem-solving ability with a logical, structured approach.
• Credibility, articulation and confidence in delivering clear recommendations and presentations.

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.