Senior Executive/Assistant Manager, Retail Education

ABOUT KENDO

Kendo is the small but mighty force behind your favourite beauty products. A play on the words “can do,” Kendo is redefining the beauty industry through next-generation products, visionary campaigns and unforgettable retail presence. Kendo creates original founder brands, partnering with major faces from fashion and entertainment. The house of brands currently includes KVD Vegan Beauty, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, Fenty Skin, Ole Henriksen, and Lip Lab. We tell their stories to bring to life the dream products you’ve always wanted but have never been able to find.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Assistant Manager/ Senior Executive, Retail and Education- SEA is responsible for translating regional Retail and Education strategy into strong, consistent execution across the region.

Working closely with the Retail and Education Manager, this role serves as the key bridge between strategy and retail floor- ensuring that brand priorities, launches, education programs and retail initiatives are not only executed, but translated into stronger Beauty Advisor capability, elevated customer experiences and commercial results.

The role combines field leadership, people management and education and project management to drive Beauty Advisor capability, elevate customer experience and improve retail performance.

This role requires weekly store visits across retail doors, ensuring consistent coaching, execution monitoring and instore support for Beauty Advisors and retail partners. The remaining time is focused on project management, education planning, reporting, cross-functional coordination and business follow up.

A strong background in beauty education and project management capability is essential, alongside commercial awareness and the ability to connect artistry and product knowledge to selling behaviors.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. FIELD AND RETAIL EXECUTION

• Conduct weekly store visits, prioritizing key doors, launches, underperforming stores and retail moments
• Coach BAs on the floor across artistry, product knowledge, shade matching, consultation, link selling and customer experience.
• Assess sales performance, brand ranking, stocks, merchandising, testers, competitive activity and overall brand execution.
• Build strong relationships with Store Managers, retailer Beauty Advisors and retailer teams to strengthen brand advocacy and execution.
• Capture consumer, competitor and field insights and translate them into clear business actions and recommendations.
• Support key launches, events, masterclasses, pop-ups and other strategic retail moments.
• PEOPLE MANAGEMENT AND BA DEVELOPMENT
• Directly manage Kendo Beauty Advisors across SEA, setting clear expectations across sales, productivity, education, artistry and brand standards.
• Set and track individual BA objectives and KPIs, including sales targets, Items Per Transaction (IPT) and other agreed performance measures.
• Conduct regular performance check-ins, coaching and development conversations.
• Build BAs beyond individual selling- developing them to influence retailer teams, support trainings and strengthen our brands’ presence within their stores.
• Identify performance or capability gaps early and implement clear improvement plans.
• Partner with the Retail and Education Manager on BA recruitment, onboarding, development and succession planning.
• PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND EDUCATION
• Own assigned Retail and Education projects end-to-end, from planning and timelines through execution, measurement and post-mortem.
• Manage multiple projects, markets and stakeholders while maintaining clear priorities and deadlines.
• Support execution of launches, trainings, education events, retailer programs, services, activations and BA engagement activities.
• Deliver engaging classroom, virtual and in-store education grounded in product knowledge, artistry and commercial selling behaviors.
• Localize Global and Regional education programs to ensure relevance across SEA markets while maintaining brand standards.
• Ensure major initiatives have clear objective, KPIs and measures of success.
• BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
• Track and report key Retail and Education KPIs including sales, BA productivity, brand ranking, launch performance and education impact.
• Consolidate field observations into concise monthly reporting with insight, implication and recommended action.
• Partner with necessary stakeholders to ensure a strong 360degree execution.
• Monitor critical inventory and execution issues and drive timely follow-up with relevant stakeholders.
• Represent Retail and Education in meetings and business discussions when required.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience
• 3-5 years’ experience in Retail, Education, Field Sales, Makeup Artistry or any related beauty role; prestige beauty experience preferred.
• Strong beauty education and application skills required.
• Previous experience managing, coaching or developing Beauty Advisors/retail teams.
• Strong project management skills with proven ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Commercial mindset with the ability to interpret sales performance and translate insights into actions.
• Strong communication, facilitation and influencing skills.
• Proficient in PowerPoint and Excel with the ability to create clear business reports and presentations.
• Highly organized, proactive and comfortable working independently.
• Able to spend approximately 50% of working time in the field and travel across SEA when required.