About Estée Lauder Companies
The Estée Lauder Companies is a global leader in prestige beauty, founded in 1946 by Estée and Joseph Lauder and built on an enduring belief in creativity, high-touch service, and entrepreneurial spirit. As an employer, the Group offers talent the scale of an international house with the energy of distinctive brands across skincare, makeup, fragrance, and hair care. Its culture values innovation, inclusion, learning, and responsible growth, inviting professionals to shape consumer experiences from laboratory to counter, digital platform to boardroom. Employees join a purpose-led organization where heritage, artistry, and scientific excellence meet to define the future of luxury beauty.
The Consumer Intelligence Director leads APAC consumer insight and market intelligence, with emphasis on Japan, Korea, and China, translating complex data into growth opportunities, particularly in skincare. The role oversees global and regional research, foresight, vendor relationships, and stakeholder collaboration, while mentoring junior team members.
Role & Responsibilities
- Lead and support global and regional skincare and makeup projects, including category awareness and usage studies, opportunity-space deep dives, cultural trends, and consumer profiling.
- Synthesize existing studies, cross-market learnings, consumer panels, social listening, and secondary data into cohesive category insights and strategic opportunities.
- Lead and support category foresight to identify APAC market and category signals, emerging trends, white spaces, and anticipated consumer and market shifts.
- Direct category- and brand-specific qualitative and quantitative research programs to support regional brand growth, including concept testing, pricing research, packaging testing, customer-journey mapping, and creative testing.
- Manage research rigor and integrate the voice of APAC consumers throughout global category and brand development, from concept to market expansion, cultivating an insight-led decision-making culture.
- Manage third-party market research vendor relationships, ensuring quality, timeliness, and budget adherence.
- Build trusting relationships with regional and global stakeholders, including marketing teams, brand teams, and consumer intelligence leads.
- Mentor junior consumer intelligence team members, drive high performance, and ensure effective cross-functional collaboration.
Qualifications
- At least 10 years of experience in beauty market insights, consumer research, or competitive intelligence, with increasing responsibility.
- Proven track record leading regional APAC projects and working across key markets such as China, Japan, and Korea.
- Advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative methods, with strong command of data and insight synthesis.
- Comfort interpreting complex signals from diverse sources, including social listening, consumer panels, ad hoc surveys, and AI search.
- Ability to translate business needs into a clear framework and distill complex data into concise, compelling narratives that influence decisions at all levels.
- Self-motivated leader who excels in fast-paced, evolving environments, maintains momentum, and provides clear direction when information is incomplete.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to align diverse stakeholders, manage competing priorities, build consensus through evidence-based persuasion, and deliver projects reliably.
- Professional fluency in English required; Korean or Japanese proficiency preferred; Chinese is a plus.
Skills
Experience
At least 10 years in beauty market insights, consumer research, or competitive intelligence, with increasing responsibility; proven experience leading regional APAC projects and working across key markets such as China, Japan, and Korea.
Workplace
This position is based in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Explore jobs in Hong Kong.
Culture
The Estée Lauder Companies fosters a collaborative, inclusive workplace where creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, and a passion for prestige beauty are deeply valued. As a global house of distinctive brands, it offers employees an environment that encourages innovation, professional growth, and a shared commitment to excellence and consumer inspiration.
About Cerulean
Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.
Frequently Asked Questions
The luxury industry is characterised by a diverse and nuanced nomenclature. Esteemed houses frequently employ proprietary terminology, and even within a single organisation like Estée Lauder Companies, titles may vary across global markets to reflect local conventions. To ensure absolute clarity, Cerulean assigns a standardised, industry-coherent canonical title to every listing. However, it is worth noting that this role is functionally synonymous with «Consumer Insights Director», «Market Intelligence Director», «Consumer Research Director», «Director of Consumer Insights», and other variations. Our sophisticated search architecture anticipates these variations, ensuring that inquiries using related terms will seamlessly yield the exact roles you desire.