Area Manager - North West

SEPHORA; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Healthcare

Life Assurance

Private Pension

Salary reviews

Employee discount

Birthday day off

Wellbeing platform

LVMH Heart Fund

Holiday allowance

Job summary

SEPHORA UK is seeking an inspirational Area Manager to lead a portfolio of stores across the North West, including Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield. You will drive performance through people leadership, client experience, and operational excellence.

In this high-impact role you’ll recruit and develop Store Directors, coach leaders, and translate commercial strategies into action while ensuring adherence to SEPHORA standards and regional growth plans.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of delivering results through people and significant multi-site experience with responsibility for people, commercial performance, and operations.
• Strong track record of leading, coaching, and developing high-performing leadership teams.
• Proven ability to drive sales growth, productivity, and operational excellence across multiple locations.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to interpret performance data and translate insight into action.
• Exceptional leadership and influencing skills, with experience building strong cultures and engaging diverse teams.
• Experience leading change, managing competing priorities, and operating effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong understanding of retail operations, compliance, stock management, and loss prevention principles.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build relationships at all levels.
• A growth mindset, resilience, and a passion for developing future leaders.
• Flexibility to travel regularly across your region and support business needs as required.

Responsibilities

• Lead performance, culture, and growth of your region.
• Mentor Store Directors and leadership teams, creating high-performing, engaged store cultures.
• Recruit, develop, and retain exceptional leadership talent.
• Drive engagement and performance through coaching, feedback, and development planning.
• Partner with Store Leadership to deliver and exceed sales, productivity, and KPI targets across the region.
• Translate commercial strategies into action, ensuring excellent execution of campaigns, launches, and business initiatives.
• Analyse market trends, customer insights, and competitor activity to identify opportunities and drive regional performance.
• Champion SEPHORA's client-first approach, ensuring stores consistently deliver exceptional experiences and service standards.
• Drive adoption and performance of loyalty programmes, services, and client engagement initiatives throughout the region.
• Lead adherence to operational standards, policies, procedures, and compliance requirements across all stores.
• Monitor inventory, cash handling, shrinkage, merchandising, and store standards to ensure operational excellence.
• Conduct regular store visits, audits, and performance reviews to identify opportunities and drive continuous improvement.
• Support new store openings, relocations, and growth initiatives, ensuring successful execution and team readiness.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver regional priorities and strategic business projects.

Skills

Leadership

Multi-site leadership

Coaching

Sales growth

Operations management

Stakeholder management

Customer experience

Change leadership

Job description

At SEPHORA UK, beauty isn’t just what we sell - it’s who we are. It’s the freedom to express yourself, the thrill of discovering something new, and the power of belonging to a community that celebrates every identity. From our beginnings in France in 1969 to becoming part of the LVMH family, we’ve always push boundaries through creativity, innovation, and inclusivity.

Today, with nearly 500 iconic brands and our own SEPHORA Collection, we’re redefining the future of prestige beauty as we continue our bold expansion across the UK. If you’re ready to bring passion, energy, and a love for immersive retail experiences to one of the world’s most dynamic beauty markets, this is your moment to shape what comes next.

The Opportunity

As an Area Manager at SEPHORA, you will lead a portfolio of stores, partnering with store leaders to drive exceptional performance across people, client experience, commercial results, and operational excellence across the North West (Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield).

This is a high-impact leadership role where you'll use your ability to inspire, coach, and influence to build high-performing teams and strong store cultures. You'll play a key role in shaping the future of the business by developing talent, elevating client experiences, identifying growth opportunities, and ensuring consistent execution of SEPHORA's standards and strategy across your region.

As a visible and influential leader, you'll work closely with stores and cross-functional partners to deliver results, support expansion, and create an environment where people, clients, and the business can thrive.

What you’ll be doing…

In this role, you will act as the driving force behind the performance, culture, and growth of your region.

By combining strategic thinking with hands‑on leadership, you'll ensure every store consistently delivers Lead, coach, and develop Store Directors and leadership teams, creating high‑performing, engaged, and inclusive store cultures.

• Build strong succession pipelines by recruiting, developing, and retaining exceptional leadership talent.
• Drive employee engagement and performance through effective coaching, feedback, and development planning.
• Partner with Store Leadership to deliver and exceed sales, productivity, and KPI targets across the region.
• Translate commercial strategies into action, ensuring excellent execution of campaigns, launches, and business initiatives.
• Analyse market trends, customer insights, and competitor activity to identify opportunities and drive regional performance.
• Champion SEPHORA's client-first approach, ensuring stores consistently deliver exceptional experiences and service standards.
• Drive adoption and performance of loyalty programmes, services, and client engagement initiatives throughout the region.
• Lead adherence to operational standards, policies, procedures, and compliance requirements across all stores.
• Monitor inventory, cash handling, shrinkage, merchandising, and store standards to ensure operational excellence.
• Conduct regular store visits, audits, and performance reviews to identify opportunities and drive continuous improvement.
• Support new store openings, relocations, and growth initiatives, ensuring successful execution and team readiness.
• Partner with cross‑functional stakeholders to deliver regional priorities and strategic business projects.

What you’ll bring…

We're looking for an inspirational retail leader with a proven track record of delivering results through people and significant multi-site experience with responsibility for people, commercial performance, and operations.

• A strong track record of leading, coaching, and developing high-performing leadership teams.
• Proven ability to drive sales growth, productivity, and operational excellence across multiple locations.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to interpret performance data and translate insight into action.
• Exceptional leadership and influencing skills, with experience building strong cultures and engaging diverse teams.
• Passion for delivering outstanding client experiences and creating customer‑focused environments.
• Experience leading change, managing competing priorities, and operating effectively in a fast‑paced environment.
• Strong understanding of retail operations, compliance, stock management, and loss prevention principles.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build relationships at all levels.
• A growth mindset, resilience, and a passion for developing future leaders.
• Flexibility to travel regularly across your region and support business needs as required.

Beautiful Benefits at SEPHORA UK

When you join SEPHORA, you’re joining a team that we truly value and our benefits reflect that. Here’s what you can look forward to:

• Private Healthcare, Life Assurance and Private Pension from day one.
• Competitive pay that grows with you, including annual salary reviews.
• A generous employee discount across the world’s best beauty brands.
• A paid day off on your birthday.
• Access to a wellbeing and perks platform.
• LVMH Heart Fund support.
• Generous holiday allowance, with the option to buy more.

Together, we 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.

We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates. Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role, so applicants must have the right to work in the UK at the start of employment and will be asked to provide relevant evidence.