Director Human Resources & Education, Singapore & Malaysia

At Sephora, beauty is about feeling seen, valued, and empowered, individually and collectively. It is connecting deeply with others, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, unlocking your potential and making a difference every day. Together, we belong to something beautiful.

Sephora SEA’s omni channel business spans over 8 countries (Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) with 100+ stores and boasts some global flagships such as ION and Raffles City in Singapore, F88 in Kuala Lumpur and Pitt Street in Sydney. Sephora SEA is experiencing rapid growth in the region with new store openings and business channels (i.e., Click and collect and marketplace).

Director, Human Resources & Education, Singapore & Malaysia

Reporting directly to the General Manager, SGMY (Singapore & Malaysia), with a matrix reporting line to the Vice President, Human Resources, SEAO, you will serve as a core member of the SGMY leadership team and own the end-to-end people and education agenda for the market. You will translate business strategy into a forward-looking people strategy that enables sustainable growth, strengthens organisational capability and creates an inclusive, high-performance culture. Leading the HR and Education functions, you will set priorities, govern execution and build a strong leadership pipeline across retail and corporate populations. You will be accountable for the quality, effectiveness and compliance of the full employee lifecycle—including organisation design, workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance, rewards, learning, employee relations, communications, HR operations and retail education—while ensuring that people investments deliver measurable business impact.

As the senior people adviser to the SGMY General Manager and leadership team, you will bring an enterprise perspective to business decisions, challenge constructively and anticipate organisational risks and opportunities. In close partnership with Regional HR Centres of Excellence, you will shape solutions for the market, influence regional priorities and ensure consistent execution of Sephora and LVMH standards while addressing local business and regulatory requirements.

You will shine here if you enjoy… 

Strategic Human Capital Management

• Define and lead the multi-year people and organisation strategy for SGMY, aligned with market, regional and Group priorities.
• Advise the General Manager and leadership team on organisation design, leadership capability, operating model and workforce choices required to deliver growth.
• Use people, productivity and engagement insights to identify opportunities, prioritise investment and measure business impact.
• Sponsor complex transformation, growth and change programmes, ensuring clear governance, stakeholder alignment and sustainable adoption.
  
  

Creating a culture

• Set the culture and engagement agenda for SGMY, translating Sephora Purpose & Values into leadership expectations, employee experiences and ways of working.
• Strengthen Sephora’s position as an employer of choice through differentiated employee propositions, inclusive practices and market-relevant programmes.
• Hold leaders accountable for engagement, performance and inclusion outcomes, using employee listening and business data to drive action.
  
  

Business Partnering

• Act as trusted adviser and constructive challenger to the General Manager and leadership team, integrating people considerations into commercial and operational decisions.
• Partner with functional leaders to strengthen organisation and leadership capability, improve productivity and build a workforce positioned for long-term growth.
• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing HR and Education leadership team with clear accountabilities, succession plans and service standards.
• Build strong partnerships with Regional HR, Finance, Legal and business teams, influencing enterprise solutions and ensuring disciplined local execution.
  
  

Compensation & Benefits

• Own the SGMY rewards agenda in partnership with the Regional Rewards team, ensuring market competitiveness, internal equity, affordability and alignment with Group philosophy.
• Provide governance and recommendations for annual salary, incentive and benefits decisions, supported by robust market data and people-cost analysis.
• Oversee the design, communication and compliant administration of reward policies, ensuring leaders can make consistent and well-informed decisions.
  
  

Performance Management

• Drive the market execution in alignment with the regional approach and governance for performance management, annual review, salary review and promotion cycles, ensuring differentiation, fairness and quality of decisions.
• Coach leaders to set clear expectations, address underperformance decisively and build a strong culture of feedback and accountability.
• Provide executive oversight of complex performance and employee-relations matters, balancing business outcomes, employee experience, legal risk and Sephora Values.
  
  

Workforce Planning

• Lead strategic workforce planning for SGMY, integrating business scenarios, labour-market dynamics, productivity, capability requirements and succession risk.
• Own organisation, headcount and people-cost governance, partnering with Regional HR and Finance on annual planning, forecasts, investment cases and corrective actions.
• Partner with the General Manager and the Regional Talent function to establish robust succession and talent pipelines for critical roles, with particular focus on leadership and retail capability.
• Provide the General Manager and Regional HR leadership with clear workforce insights, risks and recommendations through accurate dashboards and forward-looking analysis.
  
  

Ethics & Compliance

• Own HR governance, policy and compliance across Singapore and Malaysia, ensuring alignment with local employment law, Group requirements and Sephora standards.
• Provide executive oversight of sensitive employee and industrial-relations matters, investigations and organisational decisions, engaging Legal and Regional HR where appropriate.
• Maintain effective controls, risk monitoring and escalation mechanisms, and ensure leaders understand and fulfil their people-management obligations.
  
  

HR Information Systems

• Partner with Regional HRIS on the HR technology and data agenda for SGMY, driving adoption, process simplification, employee experience and effective use of regional and global platforms.
• Ensure strong governance of employee data, system access, data quality and reporting, with regular controls and clear accountability.
  
  

Talent

• Partner with the General Manager and the Regional Talent Team on the SGMY talent strategy and succession agenda, ensuring a strong, diverse pipeline for critical office and retail roles and future growth.
• Lead high-quality talent reviews with the leadership team and convert outcomes into clear development, mobility, retention and succession actions.
• Advise on leadership appointments, organisation transitions and critical talent decisions, in partnership with the Regional Talent COE.
• Oversee the market retail talent acquisition strategy and employer proposition, ensuring critical capabilities are secured efficiently and sustainably; partner with Regional Talent Acquisition for office hiring.
• Connect talent, rewards, mobility, learning, HR operations and inclusion priorities into one coherent people plan aligned with business strategy.
  
  

Learning & Development

• Set the leadership and capability-building agenda for SGMY based on business priorities, talent risks and future skill requirements.
• Partner with the Regional Talent COE to shape and deploy scalable development solutions while addressing distinct market needs, utilising Sephora’s Global Leadership Blueprint.
• Ensure learning investment is prioritised against measurable capability and business outcomes, with clear governance of budget and impact.
• Build leader ownership of development and embed learning through coaching, mentoring, career experiences, mobility and succession actions while ensuring alignment to the LVMH Career Compass and LVMH People Development principles.
  
  

Education

• Own the SGMY retail education strategy in partnership with the Director, Retail and the Regional Director, Sephora University, ensuring capability enables service excellence, commercial performance and brand standards.
• Lead the Education function and network of brand and field trainers across SGMY, setting direction, operating standards and performance expectations.
• Translate Sephora University and regional programmes into an integrated market learning roadmap, adapted to business and workforce needs.
• Establish outcome-based education KPIs and use insights to improve learner reach, field execution, customer experience and return on investment.
  
  

We would love to hear from you if you have ...

• A bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology or a related discipline; a relevant postgraduate qualification is advantageous.
• Typically 12–15 years of progressive HR leadership experience, including substantial experience leading a broad market or business-unit people agenda and managing experienced HR professionals. A minimum of 10 years of HR experience. 
• Proven success as a strategic adviser to a General Manager and senior leadership team, with the judgement and courage to influence complex business and people decisions.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience in organisation design, workforce planning, talent, rewards, employee relations, transformation and HR operations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in a matrixed environment, partner effectively with Centres of Excellence and translate regional or global frameworks into market impact.
• Experience in retail, luxury, FMCG, consumer, hospitality or e-commerce environments, ideally across both Singapore and Malaysia.
• A track record of building high-performing teams, coaching senior leaders and delivering measurable improvements in engagement, capability, productivity and succession.
• Executive presence, sound judgement and exceptional communication skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, handle sensitive matters and build alignment across diverse stakeholders.
  
  
  

Here, you will find:

• Community, in which authenticity is embraced, and the strength of our differences fuels our collective spirit

• Culture of empowerment, learning & growth, that offers you the tools, space and opportunity to learn, innovate and lead

• Work that brings fulfilment, from delighting clients every day, to inspiring our industry at large, every action makes a difference

It is in the Sephora DNA to champion a world of inspiration and inclusion where everyone can celebrate their beauty. You can be yourself, because you are what sets us apart. Join us and belong to something beautiful.

Sephora is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace for all. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, advancement, or other employment practices. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating and fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.