Associate Manager, Shopper Based Design

Wella

2d•$75,000 - $98,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Manager, Shopper Based Design (SBD) manages retail merchandising projects from brief through in-store execution, delivering on time, within budget, and to customer standards. The position focuses on OPI and supports the broader Retail Hair, OPI and Prosumer portfolio, including Retail Hair brands such as Clairol, Clairol Professional, and Wella Color Charm. Working with SBD visual merchandising colleagues, channel Trade Marketing, Field Sales, Finance, vendors, merchandisers, and customer partners, the role turns agreed plans into clear actions and coordinates delivery.

Requirements

At least 3 years of relevant retail merchandising, visual merchandising, or project management experience, with direct responsibility for vendors, budgets, and multiple concurrent projects.
Hands-on visual merchandising experience, including delivery of fixtures, displays, retail resets, or merchandising rollouts, evident in the CV or resume.
Experience delivering projects for beauty specialty retailers such as Ulta Beauty or Sephora, and for Food, Drug and Mass (FDM) customers; understanding of retailer calendars, approval processes, and in-store execution requirements.
Ability to build trust across functions and with external partners, adapt communication to the audience, handle competing needs or difficult conversations constructively, and influence delivery without direct reporting authority.
Clear communication skills, including translating project detail into concise updates, recommendations, and requests for decisions and explaining status, risks, needs, and proposed next steps.
Solution-oriented ownership, follow-through, collaboration, ability to create structure amid ambiguity, maintain accurate project status, and escalate or ask for help early.
Demonstrated budget, prioritization, and time-management skills, attention to detail, and proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and project tracking tools.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, or a related discipline.
Experience with retailer merchandising calendars, including the Ulta Beauty MTT calendar.
Experience with planogram tools such as Space Planning, NexGen, or Spaceman.
Familiarity with vendor dielines, schematics, engineering drawings, and artwork review.
Adobe Illustrator experience.
Interest in beauty.

Responsibilities

Own integrated project plans, critical milestones, dependencies, approvals, and delivery dates across simultaneous projects; identify inputs and owners, follow through, and keep priorities and project status current.
Coordinate permanent fixtures, temporary displays, planograms, artwork, replacement parts, and maintenance with SBD leads and vendors; check specifications, retailer requirements, and approvals before production and installation.
Brief and manage external vendors from scope and quotes through production, delivery, and issue resolution; set expectations for quality, cost, and timing, track performance, and coordinate required sourcing and approvals with Procurement.
Coordinate external merchandisers and installation partners, including store lists, schedules, instructions, training materials, and completion reporting; verify execution through photos or audits, resolve field issues, and close outstanding work.
Partner with Field Sales and customer leads to provide timely customer updates on progress, milestones, and hurdles; explain impacts, recommend solutions, and confirm decisions, responsibilities, and next steps.
Align SBD visual merchandising leads, Finance, channel Trade Marketing, Field Sales, and other partners on inputs, deliverables, and approvals; establish working cadences, document decisions, and escalate unresolved dependencies early.
Manage project budgets, quotes, purchase orders, invoices, accruals, and forecasts with Finance; track actuals and commitments against budget, explain variances, and recommend corrective actions before overspend occurs.
Anticipate risks and recommend practical solutions with cost and timing implications; balance competing deadlines, communicate tradeoffs, and create trackers, routines, and processes where structure is missing.