Buying Director | Lookfantastic

THG; Manchester; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

50% staff discount on THG brands

On-site gym

Recruitment referral bonus

Job summary

THG is seeking an exceptional Buying Director to lead the Lookfantastic buying strategy, owning the end-to-end purchasing agenda across brands and categories. The role drives growth, maintains key supplier partnerships, and shapes the product proposition for a global beauty retail leader.

You will lead a high-performance buying team, influence cross-functional partners, and deliver strategic plans that differentiate Lookfantastic in a competitive market.

Qualifications

• Significant senior buying experience in beauty multi-brand retail.
• Proven track record of leading a large-scale function with category/range/merchandising expertise.
• Public speaking representing the brand and driving growth.

Responsibilities

• Own the Lookfantastic buying strategy and set vision across key beauty categories.
• Drive sales and profit growth with P&L, margin, budgets and stock investment accountability.
• Identify and secure exciting established and emerging beauty brands.
• Negotiate terms with senior supplier partners and manage promotional funding.

Skills

Senior buying experience

Beauty multi-brand retail

Commercial acumen

Public speaking

Strategic leadership

Job description

About THG

We are THG, a global ecommerce group on a mission to be the global online leader in beauty and sports nutrition.

We are THG, a global ecommerce group on a mission to be the global online leader in beauty and sports nutrition. Our portfolio of leading retailers and brands such as LOOKFANTASTIC, Myprotein, ESPA, Perricone MD, and Cult Beauty form our two core businesses: THG Beauty and THG Nutrition. From Manchester to New York, we’re powered by a team of over 2500 people who work together, lead by example, and think BIG. With us, you’ll go further, faster. What are you waiting for?

Life at THG Beauty

We know that beauty isn’t one-size-fits-all. Our portfolio of leading retailers and iconic beauty brands caters to everyone, everywhere, empowering customers all over the world to look and feel fantastic. By combining our portfolio of owned brands inclusive of ESPA, Ameliorate and Christophe Robin, with a marketplace for over 1,300 third-party beauty brands through online retail sites LOOKFANTASTIC, Cult Beauty, and Dermstore, THG Beauty's ambition is to be the global digital partner of choice across the beauty industry, supporting the channel shift to online. THG Beauty’s breadth of relationships is unique to the beauty market; it engages with brands as a retailer, a brand owner, and a product developer and manufacturer, making it the industry’s digital strategic leader.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for an exceptional Buying Director to lead the buying strategy and commercial performance of Lookfantastic, THG Beauty’s flagship global beauty retail brand. This is a high-impact senior leadership role, with end-to-end ownership of the buying agenda across brands, categories, range, supplier partnerships, P&L and team performance. You’ll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Lookfantastic — ensuring we have the right relationships, brands, products, commercial strategy and customer proposition to drive sustainable growth and maintain our position as a leading global beauty destination.

What You’ll Do

• Own the Lookfantastic buying strategy, setting the vision and commercial direction across our key beauty categories.
• Drive significant sales and profit growth, with accountability for buying P&L, margin, budgets, Open-to-Buy and stock investment.
• Shape our brand portfolio, identifying and securing the most exciting established and emerging beauty brands.
• Lead senior supplier relationships, negotiating best-in-class terms across margin, payment terms, marketing investment, promotional funding and rebates whilst ensuring we support our partners goals as well as our own.
• Oversee market leading strategic Joint Business Plans with our most important brand partners, unlocking incremental growth and investment.
• Create an exceptional product proposition, using customer insight, market trends and data to continually evolve our range.
• Partner closely with Marketing and Trading to maximise the impact of launches, campaigns, promotions and key commercial moments.
• Champion stock and availability, working closely with Merchandising, Supply Chain and Operations to ensure customers can access the products they want, when they want them.
• Lead and develop a high-performing Buying team, creating a culture of commercial excellence, accountability and innovation.
• Act as a senior voice across THG Beauty, influencing strategy and driving cross-functional collaboration.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for a commercially driven, strategic and inspirational buying leader who combines a passion for beauty with a proven track record of delivering growth. You’ll bring:

• Experience: Significant senior buying experience in beauty multi-brand retail, with a proven record of leading a large-scale function, strong category/range/merchandising/commercial expertise, and confidence as a public speaker representing the brand.
• Commercial Acumen: Exceptional focus on sales, margin, ROI and P&L/stock management; strategic thinker able to operate at pace and in detail; highly analytical and data-driven.
• Partnership & Negotiation: Proven negotiator of complex commercial agreements, with long-term relationships across major beauty brands, press and trade bodies.
• Exceptional Strategist: Able to demonstrate ability to identify market white space and deliver industry leading strategies to differentiate Lookfantastic from it’s peer set.
• Trend Forecasting: Strong grasp of the global beauty industry, brands, categories, consumer trends and competitive dynamics.
• Leadership: Track record developing high-performing commercial teams, influencing cross-functionally in a complex organisation, with an entrepreneurial, opportunity-seeking mindset.

Why Lookfantastic?

Lookfantastic is one of the world's leading online beauty destinations, bringing together an exceptional portfolio of global beauty brands with a truly international customer base. As Buying Director, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the proposition of a globally recognised beauty business, influence some of the industry's biggest brands and lead a team at the heart of our commercial growth. This is a role for someone who wants real ownership, significant scale and the opportunity to make a visible impact. If you're a commercially ambitious buying leader with a passion for beauty and a track record of delivering growth, we'd love to hear from you.

What’s in it for me?

Career Development

• Access bespoke development programmes that have been designed and developed by our in-house L&D team.
• Continued development through our upskilling programme that is delivered in partnership with an industry-leading training provider.

Enhanced Leave

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Don’t want to work on your birthday? We don’t either! Enjoy your day off on us!
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay, depending on length of service.
• Up to 10 days compassionate leave.
• Buy back up to 3 days each year.
• Unlock 2 days volunteer leave after 12-months.

Wellbeing Support

• Access face-to-face and virtual appointments with our in-house GP.
• Access our 247 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which is provided by Bupa.
• State-of-the-art on-site gym.
• Access to our on-site physio.

Other Perks

• Save up to 12% on the cost of personal tech through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Subsidised bus pass from Manchester City Centre to our ICON office.
• Up to 50% staff discount on THG brands.
• On-site staff shop.
• Know someone who would be perfect for THG? Refer them and get up to £1000 when they pass their probation.
• Anniversary gifts when you hit 5 and 10 years of service.

THG is proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you are invited to interview, please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to the recruitment process that will enable you to perform to the best of your ability.

THG is committed to creating a diverse & inclusive environment and hence welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

Because of the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it sometimes takes us time to review and consider them all. We endeavour to respond to every application we receive within 14 days. If you haven't heard from us within that time frame or should you have any specific questions about this or other applications for positions at THG please contact one of our Talent team to discuss further.