Associate Director, Americas Retail Experience & VM

Sol de Janeiro
United States
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience in event or environmental design within the beauty, fashion, or lifestyle sectors and a track record of leading creative teams.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 7+ years in event or environmental design, particularly in beauty or lifestyle sectors
    — “7+ years of experience in event design, environmental design, or experiential production, preferably within the beauty, fashion, or lifestyle sectors”
  • Individuals who have led creative teams and ensured alignment with global brand standards
    — “Experience managing and developing creative teams”
  • Professionals with expertise in translating global creative direction into localized retail experiences
    — “Translate global toolkits and campaign assets into high-impact regional executions”

Things to consider

  • This role requires a strong understanding of regional vendor ecosystems and production workflows
    — “Strong working knowledge of event production workflows, fabrication methods, and regional vendor ecosystems”
  • Candidates must be able to maintain brand integrity while adapting to local market realities
    — “Protect brand equity across all physical executions, serving as the regional steward of design standards and visual integrity”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in delivering high-visibility brand experiences in retail and pop-up formats
    — “Proven track record delivering high-visibility brand experiences across retail, pop-up, and live event formats in the Americas market”
  • Emphasize your ability to balance creative ambition with budget and operational constraints
    — “Bring expertise in design feasibility and production efficiency to inform value engineering decisions”
  • Demonstrate your ability to lead and develop teams with creative confidence and strategic thinking
    — “Manage and develop the Americas Retail Experience & VM team, building creative confidence, strategic thinking, and design rigor across the group”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • build and maintain a cohesive VM ecosystem
  • translate global creative direction into local executions
  • manage and develop a team
Typical background
retail experiencevisual merchandisingproject management

Skills & requirements

Required

Brand ExperienceRetail ExperienceVisual MerchandisingProject ManagementTeam Management

Preferred

3D Design2D Artwork DevelopmentDesign Thinking

About the role

Original posting from Sol de Janeiro via Greenhouse

Our Story

Launched in 2015, Sol de Janeiro is a globally recognized, award-winning beauty brand, drawing inspiration from Brazil’s beauty rituals, warmth, and spirit. Sol de Janeiro delivers a sensory experience beloved by multi-generational consumers worldwide, with clinically proven results, transformative textures, and transportive fragrances.  

Headquartered in New York and launched as a digitally native brand, we have expanded globally with teams in Paris, London, and Germany. Our commitment to excellence has earned high-profile honors, including being named one of TIME100’s 2024 Most Influential Companies, Fast Company’s 2024 World's Most Innovative Companies, and WWD Beauty Inc’s Power Brands of 2024, underscoring its leadership in the beauty industry and outstanding workplace. These accolades highlight our dedication to being a leading brand in the beauty industry and an exceptional workplace. 

What You’ll Do

The Associate Director, Americas Retail Experience & VM will lead the regional execution of brand experiences that translate global creative direction into immersive, locally relevant environments. This role is responsible for building and maintaining a cohesive VM ecosystem across all retail touchpoints. From permanent VM to campaign activations to tentpole cultural moments, this position requires exceptional design expertise, operational rigor, and a sharp instinct for protecting brand integrity while adapting for market realities.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You’ll partner closely with Global Retail Experience, Americas business partners, Project Management, and External Vendors to ensure every execution upholds the highest design standards. You’ll also manage and develop a team, building creative confidence and strategic thinking across the group. The right person brings both a strong design eye and a systems mindset: the ability to see how individual touchpoints connect into a larger, scalable brand experience.

What You’ll Be Working On

3D VM Ecosystem and Brand Standards

· Build and maintain a scalable VM ecosystem across all Americas retail touchpoints, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment with global creative direction and levels of investment.

· Protect brand equity across all physical executions, serving as the regional steward of design standards and visual integrity.

· Translate global toolkits and campaign assets into high-impact regional executions, adapting as needed for local materials, vendor capabilities, and market-specific relevance without compromising creative intent.

· Partner closely with Global Retail Experience & VM to ensure regional work upholds creative direction, and feed insights from in-market activations back to inform global toolkit development.

2D Artwork Development and Quality Control

· Lead regional 2D artwork development, adapting global assets for Americas-specific formats, dimensions, and production requirements.

· Own the quality control process for all 2D deliverables, ensuring accuracy in messaging hierarchy, asset placement, color fidelity, and print-readiness before production release.

· Manage the artwork adaption pipeline across campaigns and permanent VM, maintaining efficiency and on-time delivery without sacrificing quality standards.

Design and Execution

· Lead design and development of branded spaces across retail activations, pop-ups, and key consumer moments, from concept through on-site execution.

· Bring expertise in design feasibility and production efficiency to inform value engineering decisions, balancing creative ambition with operational realities and budget discipline, in partnership with Procurement and Marketing.

· Mange fabrication, logistics, and installation in partnership with Americas business partners and vendors, ensuring high-quality delivery on time and within budget.

· Troubleshoot creative and technical challenges in real time, maintaining executional excellence under pressure.

Scaling and Innovation

· Lead pilot and first-to-market activations in close partnership with Global Retail Experience, ensuring excellence in concept development, localization, and onsite delivery.

· Design with the end consumer in mind, ensuring all regional adaptations support product discovery, emotional connection, and, ultimately, conversion.

· Feed regional performance insights and consumer observations back to global partners to strengthen the feedback loop.

· Continuously monitor competitive landscapes (in and outside of beauty), be on the pulse of innovation to bring disruption, modernization and excitement to our retail experiences.

Team Leadership

· Manage and develop the Americas Retail Experience & VM team, building creative confidence, strategic thinking, and design rigor across the group.

· Vet, manage, and train vendors and agency partners on brand guidelines and standards.

· Champion creative problem-solving and build a reputation as a collaborative, solutions-oriented team.

· Manage expectations cross-functionally when timelines or resources challenge proper process and executional standards.

· Ensure global stakeholders have sufficient time to review and approve all work created outside of global directives.

Must Haves

7+ years of experience in event design, environmental design, or experiential production, preferably within the beauty, fashion, or lifestyle sectors

Exceptional design expertise with mastery of relevant 2D and 3D skillsets, including spatial design, art direction, visual storytelling, and messaging hierarchies.

Experience managing and developing creative teams.

Strong 2D artwork development skills with a rigorous approach to quality control and production-ready file preparation.

 Proven track record delivering high-visibility brand experiences across retail, pop-up, and live event formats in the Americas market Strong working knowledge of event production workflows, fabrication methods, and regional vendor ecosystems

Proven track record building and maintaining VM ecosystems that scale across multiple retail formats and channels.

Strong working knowledge of production workflows, fabrication methods, and regional vendor ecosystems.

Proficiency in Sketchup, Rhino, Keyshot and Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop).

Ability to interpret global creative direction and apply it with precision, ensuring brand integrity across all regional touchpoints.

Familiarity with value engineering principles and experience optimizing creative execution within defined budgets.

Demonstrated ability to balance operational realities and budget constraints with creative intent and brand integrity, delivering work that is both financially disciplined and creatively uncompromising.

Skilled in stakeholder management, with experience aligning cross-functional priorities across Global Retail Experience and Americas business partners to deliver localized adaptations of global campaigns that meet both strategic and commercial objectives

Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to confidently represent creative work to internal stakeholders, Americas business partners, and external collaborators

Must be based in New York City or surrounding areas.

Position is required to be in-office 3 Days per week.

Salary Range$130,000—$150,000 USDWhy Sol de Janeiro?

Competitive salary and bonus program for full-time team members

Flexible hybrid work environment with opportunities for collaboration and growth

Inclusive culture that values diverse perspectives and celebrates individuality

The chance to be part of a fast-growing, award-winning global beauty brand

 The information contained herein is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee, as these may change or new ones may be assigned at any time. 

Sol de Janeiro is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. 

Requests for accommodation due to a disability or any other protected characteristic can be made at any stage of the recruitment process and during employment by contacting our People Experience Team at careers@soldejaneiro.com. 

https://soldejaneiro.com/pages/privacy-policy-sol-de-janeiro

Source: Sol de Janeiro careers (Greenhouse)

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