Location: Central London - 4 days in the office
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
The Advocate Group has partnered with a globally recognised premium beauty business to appoint a Commercial Director to lead a strategically important customer portfolio across the UK market.
This is a high-profile leadership opportunity within a market-leading organisation, offering the chance to shape commercial strategy, influence key customer partnerships and lead a high-performing National Accounts team.
Reporting into the senior leadership team, you will be responsible for driving sustainable growth across a portfolio of premium and prestige retail customers while leading a team of Senior National Account Managers and National Account Managers.
This role requires a commercially astute leader with a proven track record of building senior customer relationships, negotiating complex commercial agreements and delivering exceptional results within a branded consumer goods environment.
Do you have experience managing Luxury retail and driving commercial impact? If so, this is for you!
The Role
As Commercial Director, you will own the commercial agenda across a strategically important customer group, developing long-term growth plans that deliver both revenue and profitability objectives.
You will lead and develop a team of experienced account managers, creating a high-performance culture whilst ensuring exceptional execution of customer strategies.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing and executing customer growth strategies aligned to wider business objectives.
- Leading, coaching and developing a team of Senior National Account Managers and National Account Managers.
- Building and maintaining senior-level relationships with key retail partners.
- Leading annual negotiations, joint business planning and commercial agreements.
- Identifying opportunities to drive sales, profitability and market share growth.
- Working cross-functionally with marketing, finance, supply chain and category teams to deliver best-in-class customer plans.
- Managing forecasting, investment strategies and commercial performance across the customer portfolio.
- Influencing senior stakeholders internally and externally to achieve strategic objectives.
- Delivering customer-centric solutions that strengthen long-term partnerships and drive sustainable growth.
About You
We're looking for an accomplished commercial leader who combines strategic thinking with strong customer leadership capabilities.
You'll bring:
- Significant experience within National Accounts, Customer Development or Commercial Leadership roles.
- Proven success managing and developing high-performing account management teams.
- Strong experience negotiating complex commercial agreements with major retail customers.
- Demonstrable success delivering sustainable growth within beauty, cosmetics, personal care, luxury, premium consumer goods or adjacent sectors.
- Excellent relationship-building skills with the ability to influence at executive level.
- Strong financial and commercial acumen with experience managing sizeable P&Ls and customer investments.
- Experience developing and executing customer growth strategies within a highly competitive retail environment.
- A collaborative leadership style and passion for developing talent.
