Director, Brand Marketing, Kristin Ess

Director, Brand Marketing, Kristin Ess

The next gen beauty company, Maesa is transforming the industry by incubating and growing meaningful, innovative brands and making prestige beauty accessible. Maesa believes beauty ignites inspiration, creativity, imagination, and connection, sparking new ideas and possibilities, and meeting unmet consumer needs. Through best-in-class design, formulation, brand creation and marketing capabilities, Maesa delivers new, better and different products with an unsurpassed speed to market. Maesa works with a variety of retailers to create and launch brands across beauty and wellness categories. The current portfolio includes Kristin Ess, Hairitage by Mindy McKnight, Fine'ry, Being Frenshe, and Niches & Nooks among other brands.

Position Overview

We are seeking a skilled and passionate Director of Brand Marketing to join the Kristin Ess team. This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of a brand that has redefined the hair care category and to make a lasting impact in the beauty industry.

About Kristin Ess

Kristin Ess is a leading premium hair care brand in U.S. retail. Since its inception, the brand has disrupted the market as the first female celebrity hairstylist-led line. Over the years, Kristin Ess has continued to set benchmarks through meaningful innovation, strong retail partnerships, impactful activations, and creative use of social media and influencers—cementing its place in popular culture. With a diverse portfolio spanning hair care, tools, and color glosses, the brand makes luxury accessible to all consumers.

The Role

As Director of Brand Marketing, you will:

• Define strategies and build annual consumer and channel marketing plans by deeply understanding consumer needs, the competitive landscape, and key business metrics.
• Partner with retailers, oversee budget ownership, and lead 360° marketing planning—including press relations, photoshoots, events, and customer presentations.
• Oversee the development and execution of brand strategies for core business initiatives while elevating new product launches.
• Conduct market research and analyze sales and consumer insights to inform strategies that drive both brand and company growth.
• Manage the brand marketing team and collaborate cross-functionally to bring initiatives to life.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment, balances strategic vision with hands-on execution, and is passionate about building brands that resonate with consumers.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy: Collaborate with the VP to lead development of brand strategy and annual brand marketing plans. This includes business objectives, consumer and channel strategies, and translation of strategies to the consumer through the marketing mix.
• Business Results and Opportunity Assessment: Analyze market and business to identify opportunities for growth, ensure objectives are being met and adjust plans to deliver against growth agenda. Lead post-launch analyses to share key learnings across the organization.
• Business Plan and Project Management and Execution: Manage key brand projects including, but not limited to, advertising, merchandising, promotions, and innovation to deliver on-time with executional excellence. Lead development of briefs that give focused direction to program teams/agencies to develop programs that build equity, drive household penetration and deliver business results. Plan and flawlessly execute launch 360 marketing programs - including, but not limited to, assortment, launch toolkits, competitive deep dives, and support of digital/social/website.
• Creative, Content and Connections: Build brand equity and create value with an ecosystem of creative content and seamless connections thru to commerce. Define data-based audiences, set content strategy and partner internally and externally to deliver communications objectives and strong marketing ROI.
• Lead through P/L and manage budgeting: Own and manage your part of the marketing budget, ensuring cross-functional alignment, and year end budget performance and delivery. Knowledge of P/L and cost management is an asset.
• Skills & Capability Development: Develop business objectives, performance, personal development, and training plans. Provide coaching, feedback, and guidance.
• Cross Functional Management: Partner with internal teams and external agencies to ensure all product/seasonal activations are planned/executed on schedule and to budget.
• Champion the Brand: Drive alignment strategy with senior management and key commercial stakeholders. Responsible for consulting with cross-functional partners and driving alignment across the organization. Participate in key sales and marketing presentations.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in related field of study, MBA strongly preferred
• 8+ years of brand marketing/brand management experience; CPG experience from a Fortune 500 CPG corporation
• Mass retail experience a must
• Beauty and Personal care experience is preferred, but not required
• Strong organizational and communications skills with the ability to work within a matrixed team, both internally and externally
• Flexibility and willingness to take on additional responsibilities when needed
• Problem solver who can deal with ambiguity
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment
• Action and results-oriented

What We Offer

$160,000/yr - $170,000/yr. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. This position is eligible for participation in a discretionary bonus plan based on individual and company performance. Maesa offers a variety of benefits to eligible employees. Employees can choose to enroll in health insurance coverage, wellness programs, life and disability insurance, and retirement savings plans. Through generous paid time off, a hybrid office setup, and paid leave options, Maesa encourages wellness and balance among employees.

Our Commitment to You

At Maesa, we live by our values of collaboration, curiosity, game-changing, creativity, and discipline. We believe our people and partners are a creative force that catalyzes the possibilities in beauty to break through traditional limits and discover the "new" without restriction. We prioritize creating and fostering a welcoming environment for employees, partners, ideas, approaches, and endeavors — all through a spirit of warmth and inclusivity. As set forth in Maesa's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. #LI-Hybrid