Estée Lauder Companies Senior Lead Capability Design Architect

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

• Define, maintain, and execute a three-year technical capability vision and architectural roadmap for the assigned business capability L2 domain and sub-domains, translating business objectives into modular blueprints for product squads.
• Align technical designs with business roadmaps in partnership with Domain Directors, Product Managers, and Process Technology Leads (PTLs), distinguishing business needs from technical realization.
• Track and model Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across domain platforms; identify redundant applications, outdated interfaces, and technical debt, and develop architectural business cases for modernization.
• Lead domain-level Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to identify data latency, process bottlenecks, and integration friction, and design automated integrations to improve operational flow.
• Maintain and govern an accurate inventory of technology products, custom components, and active integrations within the domain, ensuring complete software lifecycle tracking.
• Serve as the domain's primary technical authority, translating complex functional workflows into architectural patterns, data schemas, and platform configuration parameters.
• Enforce Fit to Standard and Clean Core principles, keeping custom business logic in side-by-side cloud extensions and clean APIs rather than custom ERP configurations.
• Monitor vendor software roadmaps, cloud technology developments, and industry practices, recommending timely platform upgrades.
• Keep all critical domain L3 process maps, system interfaces, and configuration rules updated in reusable shared documentation, including Confluence and Signavio.
• Partner with Product Managers and engineering squads to ensure user stories, sprint backlogs, and feature implementations comply with capability blueprints and architecture standards.
• Audit technical solution designs and estimates from Enterprise Business Services (EBS) partners and external system integrators to prevent scope creep and uphold architectural standards.
• Present domain architecture designs to Architecture Review Boards, obtain design approvals, and resolve cross-domain integration dependencies.
• Implement platform telemetry to monitor post-deployment performance, interface reliability, and quality, ensuring solutions deliver intended business value.
• Identify and implement practical Generative AI and automation use cases in the domain, incorporating intelligent capabilities into workflows and technical architecture.
• Use ChatGPT Enterprise and AI tools to streamline technical specifications, data dictionaries, and API contracts.
• Mentor architects and product managers through technical coaching, design-artifact reviews, and career-development support.
• Present complex domain designs in peer design, strategy, and architecture forums; pressure-test peer architectures and drive collaborative improvements.
• Lead the architecture, design, and enhancement of SAP FICO solutions, primarily for Profitability Analysis (COPA) and Product Costing.
• Provide architecture leadership and governance for Product Costing and Profitability capabilities, including CO-PA, costing variants, transfer control, cost sheets, additive costing, costing without quantity structure, Material Ledger, transfer pricing, and intercompany and cross-border processes.
• Define scalable, sustainable SAP solutions aligned with enterprise architecture standards and global business requirements.
• Provide architectural leadership for complex Finance and Supply Chain integration initiatives.
• Drive solution design decisions that balance standard SAP functionality, business requirements, and long-term maintainability.
• Design and support Profitability Analysis (COPA) solutions.
• Lead Product Costing design and configuration, including costing variants, transfer control, cost sheets, additive costing, costing without quantity structure, and Material Ledger.
• Support transfer-pricing models and complex intercompany and cross-border business processes.
• Define and govern end-to-end Finance Capability Architecture, ensuring integration and architectural consistency across Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Order-to-Cash (O2C), Demand-to-Build (D2B), and Book-to-Report (B2R).
• Lead workshops to gather business requirements and conduct Fit/Gap analysis for global and regional deployments.
• Support global SAP implementations, enhancement releases, and business transformation initiatives.
• Partner with regional and global stakeholders to standardize processes while addressing local business requirements.
• Support testing activities.
• Provide architectural oversight for Application Management Services (AMS), enhancements, break-fix activities, and production support.
• Collaborate with development teams on functional specifications, custom enhancements, interfaces, and integrations.
• Govern architecture with ABAP development teams across design, build, testing, and deployment to ensure compliance with enterprise standards and technical best practices.
• Ensure adherence to Solution Architecture and Center of Excellence (CoE) standards and methodologies.

Qualifications

• Advanced capability in modeling end-to-end domain technical architectures using TOGAF or SAP EA frameworks, including robust data flows and interface specifications across complex corporate capabilities.
• Deep technical proficiency in side-by-side extensions such as SAP BTP and cloud microservices, REST/GraphQL API contracts, and decoupling legacy middleware.
• Skilled in using ChatGPT Enterprise and AI development tools to accelerate technical specification drafting, analyze legacy configuration dependencies, and maintain living repositories.
• Ability to review, audit, and benchmark system integrator technical designs, SOW proposals, and code artifacts.
• Proficiency in Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and APQC modeling to optimize business processes and translate operational needs into modern technical architecture.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• At least 7 years of experience.

Skills

Experience

At least 7 years

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Compensation

The base compensation for this position ranges from USD 122,900 to USD 202,500 per annum.

Benefits

Eligible employees may receive medical, dental, and vision insurance; wellness and family support programs; life and disability insurance; retirement savings plans; paid leave, education-related programs, paid holidays, and vacation time. The role is also eligible for a competitive bonus program, with potential overachievement based on performance and company results, and a share incentive plan. Many benefits are subsidized or fully paid by the company.

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.