Head of Wholesale, Retail

Madison Reed•San Francisco, CA

1d•$195,000 - $205,000•Remote

About The Position

The Head of Wholesale owns Madison Reed’s wholesale P&L and retailer relationships across prestige specialty, mass, off-price, club, professional distribution and international channels in North America, the UK and the Middle East. This is a hands-on leadership role responsible for managing the portfolio as a whole, determining investment priorities, developing channel-specific strategies and building the team and capabilities needed to support future growth. The position reports directly to the Chief Commercial Officer and leads a team of wholesale leaders. The Head of Wholesale partners with the SVP, Business Development, who originates new partnerships and hands them over at first purchase order. The role owns wholesale financial planning and performance, including revenue, margin, trade spend, profitability, operating expenses, budgeting and forecasting. It develops the annual plan and three-to-five-year portfolio strategy, sets channel-specific assortment and pack architecture, manages channel-conflict policies, and assumes responsibility for new retail doors after the first purchase order. It serves as the senior Madison Reed relationship for major retail partners, leads joint business planning and negotiations, and drives merchandising and planogram execution through retailer engagement and store visits. The Head of Wholesale sets the team’s standard for AI-enabled commercial intelligence and predictive analysis, sponsors retailer intelligence tools and briefs, and works across Finance, Planning, Supply Chain, Marketing, Education, Product Development and Digital Product. The role also leads and develops a team comprising a Director, Senior Manager and Manager. This is a full-time, remote role with up to 30% travel from home for retailer visits, store manager shows, industry events, team meetings, quarterly business meetings and company-sponsored events. The base salary range is $195,000–$205,000.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
12 or more years of progressive experience in beauty, cosmetics or CPG.
At least five years of experience in strategic sales leadership, rather than purely sales execution.
Proven P&L ownership at scale in an omnichannel model, with a record of hitting and exceeding plan.
Experience across more than one channel type; prestige specialty plus at least one of off-price, club or international experience is required for the portfolio.
Established relationships with senior decision makers at major beauty retailers.
Strong financial acumen, including the ability to build and interrogate models personally in Excel or Looker.
Demonstrated fluency using AI tools in commercial work, including analysis, forecasting, competitive intelligence and executive communication.
Exceptional negotiation skills and ability to influence across a matrixed organization.
Entrepreneurial, decisive and comfortable with ambiguity in a changing business.
Ability to present portfolio strategy to the C-Team and personally develop and analyze trade-spend models.
Ability to manage retailer relationships personally and make proactive, data-supported portfolio and investment decisions.

Nice To Haves

Ulta Beauty experience is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Own the full wholesale P&L, including revenue, margin, trade spend and profitability across all doors and channel types.
Build and defend the annual plan and three-to-five-year portfolio strategy, determining which channel types to invest in, hold or exit.
Own and manage the trade-spend model; track promotional and co-op investment returns and discontinue ineffective spending.
Partner with Finance and Channel Demand Planning on bottom-up revenue planning from POS, and own the resulting forecast.
Manage wholesale OpEx, including the annual budget, headcount, travel, trade shows, program spending and variance reporting.
Set explicit strategies for prestige specialty, mass, club, off-price, professional distribution and international channels across North America, the UK and the Middle East.
Own channel-conflict policies involving Amazon, DTC and Hair Color Bars, including pricing, promotion and assortment rules.
Set channel-specific assortment and pack architecture with Product Development and Merchandising, including exclusive products and packaging where appropriate.
Partner with the SVP, Business Development on new doors and take ownership from first purchase order, including scaling plans and internal readiness.
Serve as the senior Madison Reed relationship for major partners and personally lead joint business planning with Ulta, Target and Walmart.
Lead annual market meetings, line reviews and negotiation strategy for terms, shelf space, promotional calendars and new items.
Drive visual merchandising and planogram improvements, advocate for space, fixtures and secondary placement, and ensure agreed sets are implemented.
Visit stores to inspect retail sets and planogram execution and report findings.
Set the wholesale intelligence standard so joint business plans, line reviews and executive briefs use predictive analysis.
Set expectations for the team’s use of Madison Reed’s AI operating levels and hold the team accountable to them.
Sponsor the Retailer Intelligence system, including weekly retailer signal briefs, pre-JBP intelligence packages and a competitive timeline.
Align with Supply Chain and Planning on forecast accuracy, in-stock rates and inventory needed to support off-price and club volume while maintaining core availability.
Partner with Marketing on retailer media, shopper marketing and go-to-market plans, incorporating DTC creative and audience learnings into retailer media.
Partner with Education on channel-specific education, field leader conferences and professional-channel training.
Partner with Product Development on long-lead planning and the three-year innovation plan so wholesale needs shape the assortment in advance.
Partner with Digital Product on wholesale tooling and reporting.
Own the annual influencer plan for retail partners with Marketing, tying it to the retailer calendar and measuring sell-through.
Lead, coach and grow a team consisting of a Director, Senior Manager and Manager, and build the team’s bench.
Give each team leader a clear book of business and target, and hold them accountable.