Director, Licensing - Tom Ford and Couture Brands

About the job

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products, and is a steward of luxury and prestige brands globally. The company’s products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD, and BALMAIN Beauty.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director, Licensing and Strategy, TOM FORD and Couture Brands is responsible for leading the strategic management, governance, and long-term evolution of current and future license partnerships across the portfolio. As the steward of cross-vertical alignment this role ensures that all stakeholders are operating against a unified long-term brand strategy, translating brand and enterprise priorities into coordinated execution across categories, geographies and commercial channels. This role ensures financial, contractual, and operational discipline across ELC and licensee/licensor organizations, while strengthening ways of working, executive visibility, and execution against shared business priorities. Partnering closely with Brand, Finance, Legal, Retail Management, licensee/licensor teams, and senior leadership, the Director leads the annual development and ongoing governance of the total brand/cluster strategic plan, and serves as the primary connector across licensing workstreams, translating license agreement requirements and partnership priorities into clear governance, accountability, reporting, and action plans.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead day-to-day and longer-term governance of TOM FORD and Balmain Beauty license relationships, ensuring clear priorities, ownership, follow-up, and progress against agreed objectives.
• Lead the development of the annual Brand Strategy for both brands, and governance thereafter, aligning long-term priorities across Beauty, Fashion, Eyewear, and future categories while driving accountability for execution with internal and external stakeholders
• Translate brand vision into aligned strategic priorities with ELC 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/licensor partners, escalating key decisions, risks, and opportunities to leadership while driving timely resolution across stakeholder groups
• Set agendas and lead recurring governance forums with day-to-day licensee leads, maintaining clear meeting materials, decision logs, deliverables, and follow-ups.
• Maintain and evolve partnership trackers to provide leadership with visibility to licensee/licensor priorities, outstanding requests, contractual requirements, and progress against goals.
• Oversee the development, review, and delivery of quarterly royalty reports, financial reports, fashion show reconciliations, T&E tracking, and outgoing/incoming payments.
• Lead coordination with Finance to ensure accuracy, timeliness, controls, and appropriate follow-through on reporting and payment processes.
• Identify financial or contractual risks, surface implications to leadership, and partner with Finance, Legal, and business teams on appropriate mitigation plans.
• Lead tracking and management of contractual obligations, including submission calendars, rules of engagement, fashion show plans, marketing plans, and other required deliverables.
• Partner with Legal and business stakeholders to support development of supplemental agreements, including retail agreements, data sharing arrangements, and other documents that support license execution.
• Ensure licensee requests, including new distributors, trademarks, new 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 across internal and external stakeholders.
• Partner with Retail Management and cross-functional teams to enable systems, processes, and ways of working that support the sale of non-Beauty license partner goods where applicable.
• Support owned boutique execution by coordinating requirements, approvals, operational dependencies, and issue resolution related to licensee/licensor items.
• Identify opportunities to improve licensing operations, stakeholder communication, and executional efficiency across markets and functions.
• Develop concise weekly highlights, issue summaries, and decision materials for senior management, ensuring leadership has clear visibility to progress, risks, and required actions.
• Translate complex licensing, financial, contractual, and operational details into clear recommendations and updates for executive audiences.
• Provide thought partnership to leadership on license relationship health, governance effectiveness, operational priorities, and opportunities to strengthen accountability.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or relevant luxury, licensing, finance, legal, or commercial experience preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in licensing, brand management, partnerships, finance, business operations, legal operations, retail/commercial operations, or related fields; prior experience in beauty, luxury, fashion, or consumer goods strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of licensee/licensor relationships, contractual obligations, governance models, and cross-functional stakeholder management.
• Strong financial acumen and analytical capability, with experience reviewing reports, tracking payments, identifying risks, and translating data into leadership-ready insights.
• Excellent project management, organization, prioritization, and planning skills, with the ability to manage multiple complex workstreams with accuracy and accountability.
• 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 operating in a fast-paced, matrixed environment with senior-level visibility.

Pay Range:

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $124,200.00  to $214,450.00. Exact salary depends on several factors such as experience, skills, education, and budget. Salary range may vary based on geographic location. In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for participation in a highly competitive bonus program as well as participation in the share incentive plan. In addition,

In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for participation in a highly competitive bonus program with the possibility for overachievement based on performance and company results. In addition, The Estée Lauder Companies offers a variety of benefits to eligible employees, including health insurance coverage (medical, dental, and vision insurance), wellness and family support programs, life and disability insurance, retirement savings plans, paid leave programs, education-related programs, paid holidays and vacation time, and many others. Many of these benefits are subsidized or fully paid for by the company.

Equal Opportunity Employer

It is Company's policy not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), gender identity or gender expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws and ordinances. The Company will endeavor to provide a reasonable accommodation consistent with the law to otherwise qualified employees and prospective employees with a disability and to employees and prospective employees with needs related to their religious observance or practices. Should you wish to apply for this position or any other position with the Company and you believe you require assistance to complete an application or participate in an interview, please contact USApplicantAccommodations@Estee.com.

Michigan Applicants: Persons with disabilities needing accommodations for employment must notify the company in writing of the need for an accommodation within 182 days after the date the person with a disability knew or reasonably should have known that an accommodation was needed.

Philadelphia Applicants: Philadelphia's Fair Chance Hiring Law

Rhode Island Applicants: The company is subject to chapters 29-38 of title 28 of the general laws of Rhode Island and is therefore covered by the state's workers' compensation law.