L’Oréal is the world’s largest cosmetic company with the highest investment in R&I in the industry. Founded in 1909 by a young chemist, Eugene Schueller, L’Oréal continues to excel in science and innovation. L’Oréal’s Research and Innovation employs over 4,000 people of approximately 60 nationalities. Working in some thirty disciplines, more than half of these employees have doctorates or engineering degrees, and they are responsible for about 600 patents filed per year.

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Job Description

We are recruiting the Head of Color Science Métier in North Asia who will work transversally on make up and hair color categories. The person will be based in Shanghai or Tokyo and be reporting locally into the Head of R&I China or Japan and operationally into the WW Head of Color Science Métier. The person will work cross-functionally with multiple internal teams as well as external partners. Just to name a few of the internal teams, he or she will work with Development and Application Domains in make up and hair color, Evaluation Intelligence, Augmented Beauty Métier, Invention Domains, CMI, Innovation Direction and global marketing teams mainly located in all R&I hubs in Asia (Japan, China, India) in close collaboration with the International Color Science Community. The person is responsible for the strategy of Color Science in North Asia that is aligned with the WW Color strategy and locally adapted to Asia zone.

The principal mission of this role will be to create and lead a transversal Color Science activity (strategy and project portfolio) in North Asia, in order to:

1. Provide to consumers the best performing and most relevant colors and the best personalized services and products for Make Up and Hair Color products
2. Establish our brands as trend setters for new color and optical effects
3. To achieve this mission, the Head of Color Science North Asia will be driven by a transversal, consumer centric and holistic approach to Color and be entitled with following job responsibilities:
4. Propose a strategic roadmap aligned with local and global objectives
5. Directly lead the local organization of Color Science Métier in North Asia (China and Japan)
6. Build a local network of external partners with Centers of Excellence in Color (academia, startups, RM suppliers…) and initiate collaborations 
7. Build the talent pipeline with Top Talents in Color Science
8. Understand our competitor’s strategy in Color and monitor them closely
9. Lead and support the co creation of trends by catching and creating transversal color trends for makeup and hair color with all partners (forecast agency, DI, DMI, zone)
10. Initiate and lead programs on Color Science by leveraging Consumer Centric approaches to deliver relevant shade ranges, new color socles with superior performance (innovation formulation) and accurate product positioning
11. Lead color science activity locally and act as an internal leader in the field

Background

• 10+ years of professional experience, ideally in the domain of color in the beauty industry or any other industry
• Cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management skills
• Ph.D’s or Master’s Degree in color science, optics, chemistry, electronic engineering, computer vision
• Solid understanding of colorimetry, color appearance, cognitive science and color management systems
• Proficient in data viz and data analysis (Power BI, Python, ….)
• Knowledge of pigments and raw materials technologies in color
• Curiosity, independent thinking and problem-solving skills  
• Proven ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced setting while maintaining attention to detail 
• Strategic thinking
• Excellent communication and presentation skills   
• Passionate for science, color and the beauty industry

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