Tom Ford Director of Licensing and Strategy

About Tom Ford

Tom Ford stands as a modern icon of luxury, renowned for its cinematic glamour, impeccable tailoring, and uncompromising vision across fashion, beauty, eyewear, and accessories. As an employer, the house offers a refined, high-performance environment where creativity, commercial intelligence, and exacting standards converge. Employees are invited to contribute to a brand defined by sensual elegance, disciplined execution, and a distinctive global identity. With opportunities spanning design, retail, marketing, product development, and corporate functions, Tom Ford attracts professionals who value excellence, sophistication, and cultural relevance, while seeking to shape the future of contemporary luxury with confidence and precision.

Role & Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day and long-term governance of TOM FORD and Balmain Beauty license relationships, setting priorities, ownership, follow-up, and progress against agreed objectives.
• Develop annual brand strategies for both brands and oversee ongoing governance, aligning long-term priorities across Beauty, Fashion, Eyewear, and future categories while driving execution accountability with internal and external stakeholders.
• Translate brand vision into strategic priorities with Estée Lauder Companies leadership and licensees, ensuring partnership roadmaps, investment decisions, and operating plans support a cohesive global brand strategy.
• Serve as a point of contact for licensee and licensor partners, escalating key decisions, risks, and opportunities to leadership and driving timely resolution across stakeholder groups.
• Set agendas and lead recurring governance forums with day-to-day licensee leads, maintaining meeting materials, decision logs, deliverables, and follow-ups.
• Maintain and evolve partnership trackers to give leadership visibility into licensee and licensor priorities, outstanding requests, contractual requirements, and progress against goals.
• Oversee the development, review, and delivery of quarterly royalty and financial reports, fashion show reconciliations, T&E tracking, and outgoing and incoming payments.
• Coordinate with Finance to ensure accuracy, timeliness, controls, and follow-through on reporting and payment processes.
• Identify financial or contractual risks, communicate implications to leadership, and work with Finance, Legal, and business teams on mitigation plans.
• Track and manage contractual obligations, including submission calendars, rules of engagement, fashion show plans, marketing plans, and other required deliverables.
• Partner with Legal and business stakeholders on supplemental agreements, including retail agreements, data-sharing arrangements, and other documents supporting license execution.
• Ensure licensee requests—including new distributors, trademarks, market openings, and related approvals—are evaluated, routed, and addressed with appropriate urgency and accountability.
• Strengthen process discipline and documentation to support compliance, reduce ambiguity, and improve transparency among internal and external stakeholders.
• Partner with Retail Management and cross-functional teams to enable systems, processes, and ways of working that support sales of non-Beauty license partner goods where applicable.
• Support owned-boutique execution by coordinating requirements, approvals, operational dependencies, and issue resolution related to licensee and licensor items.
• Identify opportunities to improve licensing operations, stakeholder communication, and executional efficiency across markets and functions.
• Prepare concise weekly highlights, issue summaries, and decision materials for senior management, giving leadership visibility into progress, risks, and required actions.
• Translate complex licensing, financial, contractual, and operational details into clear recommendations and updates for executive audiences.
• Advise leadership on license relationship health, governance effectiveness, operational priorities, and opportunities to strengthen accountability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; an advanced degree or relevant luxury, licensing, finance, legal, or commercial experience preferred.
• At least 8 years of experience in licensing, brand management, partnerships, finance, business operations, legal operations, retail or commercial operations, or related fields; prior experience in beauty, luxury, fashion, or consumer goods strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of licensee and licensor relationships, contractual obligations, governance models, and cross-functional stakeholder management.
• Strong financial acumen and analytical capability, including experience reviewing reports, tracking payments, identifying risks, and translating data into leadership-ready insights.
• Excellent project management, organizational, prioritization, and planning skills, with the ability to manage multiple complex workstreams accurately and accountably.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence cross-functional teams and external partners without direct authority.
• High attention to detail, sound judgment, and comfort working in a fast-paced, matrixed environment with senior-level visibility.

Skills

Experience

At least 8 years in licensing, brand management, partnerships, finance, business operations, legal operations, retail or commercial operations, or related fields; prior experience in beauty, luxury, fashion, or consumer goods strongly preferred.

Education

Bachelor’s degree required; an advanced degree preferred.

Compensation

The base compensation for this position ranges from USD 124,200 to USD 214,450 per annum.

Benefits

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

Culture

Tom Ford fosters a polished, high-performance culture shaped by bold creativity, meticulous craftsmanship, and an uncompromising eye for detail. As an employer, the brand values confidence, discretion, and collaboration, offering an environment where teams contribute to a sophisticated vision of modern luxury.

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.