Category Manager — Colour Cosmetics

About the role

Colour is Perlmont's most-watched category and our most volatile. A shade goes viral on Friday, sells out by Sunday, and the reorder lead time from Korea is eleven weeks. The category manager is the person who has to be right about that on a Tuesday in March.

You will own the full colour assortment — lip, complexion, eye and nail — across 34 Hong Kong doors, our own site, and the two marketplace storefronts we operate. That means the brand mix, the shelf space, the promotional calendar, the margin, and the conversations with regional brand principals about launch allocations for Hong Kong.

The category has grown 19% year on year but our sell-through on new launches has slipped, and half our top-20 SKUs are now imported by our own trading arm rather than through distributors. This role is the one that decides whether we keep going that way. You will report to the Beauty Buying Director and manage two assistant buyers and a merchandise planner.

What you'll do

• Own the colour cosmetics P&L — sales, margin, markdown and stock cover — and present it monthly to the commercial board
• Set the brand and SKU architecture by door tier, so a Causeway Bay flagship and a Tuen Mun neighbourhood store carry ranges that actually suit their shoppers
• Negotiate annual terms, launch allocations and marketing support with brand principals in Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo
• Work with the planner on open-to-buy, intake phasing and the exit plan for slow lines before they become markdown
• Brief the visual merchandising and content teams on every launch — gondola layout, tester strategy, on-site edit and the shade finder
• Track competitor pricing and grey-market pressure across the category and recommend where we hold price and where we do not
• Coach two assistant buyers through their first full buying cycle

What we're looking for

• 8+ years in beauty buying, category management or brand-side trade marketing, with at least three years owning a category P&L
• Demonstrable negotiation record with beauty principals or distributors, including terms and marketing contribution
• Trilingual working ability — Cantonese for the store network, Mandarin for cross-border suppliers, English for regional principals
• Fluent with open-to-buy mechanics, sell-through analysis and markdown modelling; you can build the model, not just read it
• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing or a related field

Nice to have

• Existing relationships with Korean or Japanese beauty brand offices
• Experience launching a private-label or exclusive-distribution line
• Understanding of Hong Kong cosmetic product labelling and import requirements

What you get

• 20 days annual leave plus a paid week between Christmas and New Year
• Enhanced medical with specialist and Chinese medicine cover
• 40% staff discount across all brands, including the ones we do not discount publicly
• Two brand-immersion trips a year to Seoul or Tokyo
• Visa and relocation support for the right candidate