Associate Director - Americas Retail Experience & VM

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 130000 - 150000 USD