Estée Lauder Companies Corporate Strategy Director

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.

Role & Responsibilities

• Lead defined workstreams in the enterprise strategy and annual strategy process across brands, regions, and functions.
• Structure complex strategic questions, develop hypotheses, and determine analytical approaches for assessing opportunities and challenges.
• Analyze consumers, competitors, categories, channels, geographies, market trends, and financial performance to identify implications for the business.
• Translate quantitative and qualitative analyses into insights, strategic perspectives, and recommendations.
• Develop senior-ready presentations and strategic narratives that clearly communicate complex information and support decision-making.
• Partner with brand, regional, and functional teams to gather perspectives, test hypotheses, and develop integrated recommendations.
• Monitor consumer and cultural trends, competitor moves, category innovation, channel disruption, technology, and macroeconomic shifts, translating relevant signals into strategic implications.
• Independently determine analytical and problem-solving approaches for assigned workstreams and develop recommendations for Corporate Strategy leadership; identify material implications and trade-offs, escalating matters requiring Executive Director or Vice President direction.
• Lead cross-functional strategic projects addressing priority enterprise, brand, regional, or functional opportunities.
• Translate strategic questions into structured project plans, analyses, milestones, and deliverables.
• Coordinate stakeholders and subject-matter experts to maintain pace and rigor.
• Synthesize stakeholder perspectives and data sources into coherent strategic recommendations.
• Identify project risks, dependencies, and unresolved decisions, and develop approaches to address them.
• Support business leaders in translating strategic recommendations into actions, priorities, and success measures.
• Track strategic initiatives and identify opportunities to strengthen execution and impact.
• Develop business cases and strategic analyses to support prioritization, investment decisions, resource allocation, and evaluation of growth opportunities.
• Manage and develop Senior Manager-level talent through direction, coaching, feedback, and development opportunities.
• Review analyses and deliverables for accuracy, strategic rigor, and clarity.
• Create effective team structures and ways of working across assigned projects and workstreams.
• Foster collaboration with brand, regional, functional, finance, insights, and other partners.
• Contribute to Corporate Strategy tools, frameworks, knowledge development, and ways of working.
• Help build a high-performing team culture marked by intellectual curiosity, collaboration, accountability, and execution excellence.
• Own significant strategy workstreams or projects, accountable for their quality, pace, stakeholder engagement, and recommendations; coach junior strategy talent while working with Executive Director guidance on broader enterprise context and senior-level decisions.

Qualifications

• At least 6 years of experience in corporate strategy, strategic planning, business transformation, corporate development, management consulting, or a related strategic role.
• At least 3 years at a top-tier consulting firm; MBB experience preferred.
• Strategy consulting experience strongly preferred.
• Experience in beauty, consumer products, prestige or luxury, retail, or another consumer-facing industry is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience independently leading complex strategic analyses and cross-functional projects and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
• Experience managing or coaching junior team members preferred.
• Strong strategic thinking and structured problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to independently structure ambiguous problems and determine the analyses needed to answer them.
• Excellent analytical skills, including interpretation of complex market, consumer, competitive, and financial information.
• Strong business judgment and ability to move from analysis to insight to recommendation.
• Ability to connect disparate information and identify broader business implications.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including clear, senior-ready presentations and strategic narratives.
• Strong project leadership skills and ability to manage multiple stakeholders and workstreams.
• Ability to build collaborative relationships, influence matrixed teams, and coach junior talent.
• Strong attention to detail combined with a broader enterprise perspective.
• Comfort with ambiguity, rapid learning, changing priorities, and a high bar for execution.

Skills

Experience

At least 6 years in corporate strategy, strategic planning, business transformation, corporate development, management consulting, or a related strategic role, including at least 3 years at a top-tier consulting firm; MBB preferred.

Education

Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred.

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.