Sephora Director of Retail and Omnichannel Technology

About Sephora

Sephora is a global prestige beauty leader, renowned for redefining the retail experience through creativity, inclusivity, and expert service. Founded in France and now part of LVMH, the company brings together an exceptional portfolio of beauty brands with a distinctive culture of discovery and innovation. As an employer, Sephora offers a dynamic, customer-centered environment where talent is encouraged to learn, experiment, and grow across retail, digital, merchandising, operations, and corporate functions. Its teams are united by a passion for beauty, entrepreneurship, and belonging, making Sephora a compelling workplace for professionals seeking impact within a fast-moving international brand.

The Director of Retail and Omnichannel Technology defines and executes Sephora Middle East’s technology strategy and operational performance across retail, omnichannel and digital platforms, leading Retail Solutions, Omnichannel Solutions & Support, and Digital Engineering & Platforms. The role partners with Digital Product leadership and global technology teams, oversees regional delivery, governance, engineering, payments, vendors and team development, and is a permanent, full-time, on-site position.

Role & Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the Retail and Omnichannel Technology strategy, capability roadmap and investment view, aligned with business roadmaps and global technology direction.
• Own technology governance across architecture, delivery risk, non-functional requirements, service transition and technology lifecycle, with executive reporting and escalation.
• Establish measurable technology KPIs for availability, performance, incident trends, delivery predictability, technical debt and service quality, in agreement with Product and business stakeholders.
• Own the strategy and lifecycle of retail store technology, including POS platforms, store devices and peripherals, pricing and promotions, inventory processes and retail integrations.
• Lead and govern POS implementations, upgrades, releases, deployments, cutovers and stabilization, including new store openings and major rollouts.
• Ensure robust POS integration with EFT terminals, payment gateways, acquiring services, loyalty and gift cards, with oversight of transaction flows, reconciliation and operational resilience.
• Build team-wide understanding of SAP Retail flows and integration points with POS, inventory, merchandising and pricing to support requirements assessment and incident diagnosis across SAP Retail and connected applications.
• Partner with Digital Product leadership to translate approved business priorities into technology roadmaps, architecture decisions and investment requirements.
• Provide technology leadership for unified commerce journeys, including Click & Collect, Ship from Store, Endless Aisle, store fulfilment, order lookup, cross-channel returns and clienteling.
• Oversee the Order Management System, order orchestration, inventory visibility and fulfilment integrations to support intended customer and operational journeys.
• Establish incident, problem and service management across omnichannel platforms, with clear ownership, SLAs, stakeholder communication, vendor coordination, root-cause analysis and continuous improvement.
• Develop the Digital Engineering capability and establish modern practices across APIs, integrations, cloud platforms, mobile and web, automation, CI/CD, quality engineering and observability, while managing technical debt.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure to ensure solutions are secure, resilient, scalable and aligned with enterprise standards.
• Identify practical opportunities for AI, automation and data-driven capabilities to improve customer experience, store productivity and technology operations.
• Ensure technology solutions meet applicable UAE and regional payment, fiscal, tax, data protection and regulatory requirements, working with Finance, Legal, Risk and Compliance.
• Maintain awareness of country-specific fiscalisation, payment certification and regulatory constraints when designing and deploying retail solutions across the Middle East.
• Ensure payment and POS changes are appropriately tested, certified, reconciled and operationally supported, with clear business continuity controls.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team, building succession depth, clear accountability and a culture of ownership, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Manage technology partners, vendor performance, budgets and investment priorities to maximize business value.
• Build strong relationships with local and global stakeholders to foster collaboration, innovation and execution excellence.

Qualifications

• At least 10 years of experience; 15+ years’ experience in Retail Technology, Omnichannel, Digital Commerce or related technology functions, including senior leadership roles.
• Strong background in large, multi-site retail environments, managing store technology implementations, rollouts and technology modernization programs.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary technology teams and partner effectively with product owners.
• Solid knowledge of SAP Retail, POS implementation and operations, OMS (Fluent Commerce preferred), and omnichannel or unified commerce journey solutions.
• Good understanding of compliance, taxation, payments and data privacy, ideally within the Middle East.
• Strong commercial acumen across budget management, business cases, vendors, contracts and SLAs.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to simplify complex technology decisions for business leaders while retaining the technical depth to challenge solutions.
• Collaborative, customer-centric mindset and comfort working in a fast-paced, matrix environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; professional certifications are advantageous (Agile, ITIL, cloud or program management).
• Fluent English; Arabic and/or French would be a plus.

Skills

Experience

At least 10 years; 15+ years in Retail Technology, Omnichannel, Digital Commerce or related technology functions, including senior leadership roles.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; professional certifications are advantageous (Agile, ITIL, cloud or program management).

Workplace

Benefits

A community that embraces authenticity and values difference; a culture of empowerment with learning and growth opportunities; and fulfilling work focused on delighting clients and inspiring the industry.

Culture

Sephora fosters a dynamic, inclusive workplace where creativity, curiosity, and a passion for beauty are encouraged at every level. As an employer, it is distinguished by its focus on empowerment, continuous learning, and a collaborative retail culture that celebrates individuality and client-centric innovation.

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.