The beauty industry has always moved quickly. But the way beauty brands grow — and the teams they need to support that growth — has changed dramatically.
Today, a growing beauty brand might be selling DTC, launching into Sephora or Ulta, building a TikTok Shop strategy, managing hundreds of creators and affiliates, expanding wholesale, developing new products, producing an always-on stream of content, and trying to make all of those channels work together.
That complexity has changed hiring, too.
At GOOD PEOPLE, we work with beauty brands including Rhode, Bubble, Primally Pure, DedCool, Arey, Vegamour and TONE, and we’re seeing firsthand how much more specialized beauty hiring has become.
The challenge is no longer simply finding someone with beauty experience.
It’s understanding exactly what kind of experience your business needs — and finding the person who can deliver it.
The “marketing person” doesn’t really exist anymore
Not long ago, a growing brand might hire a VP or Director of Marketing and expect that person to oversee most of the marketing function.
Today, that’s a much harder brief.
Growth and performance marketing can encompass DTC, paid media, affiliate, TikTok Shop, influencer, community, creator-led commerce, and paid and organic channels.
Brand and retail marketing can require expertise across PR, communications, social, events, education, trade marketing and the very different strategies required to grow through retailers like Sephora, Ulta, Target and specialty retail.
Behind the scenes, beauty brands also need increasingly specialized expertise across R&D, formulation, product development, innovation, packaging, finance, operations, inventory management, supply chain, production and planning.
Two candidates can have almost identical titles on their résumés and bring completely different capabilities to the table.
That’s why defining the role correctly has become one of the most important parts of the hiring process.
Before you search for the right person, make sure you’re searching for the right role
One of the most valuable things a recruiting partner can do happens before a single candidate is contacted.
What does the business actually need this person to accomplish?
Is the role primarily about brand building or revenue growth? Do you need someone who has scaled DTC, expanded retail, built a team, launched new products — or all four?
Does the scope match the title?
Does the compensation match the caliber of candidate you’re expecting?
Would someone coming from a large global beauty company thrive inside a founder-led team where they’re expected to build and execute? Or does the business actually need someone who has already operated in that environment?
At GOOD PEOPLE, we help clients pressure-test the scope, level, compensation, title, location and market expectations of a role before and throughout the search.
Getting those decisions right at the beginning can save weeks — or months — of searching for a candidate who may not exist at the intersection of the original brief.
Your applicant pool isn’t the talent market
Posting a job can tell you who is actively looking.
It doesn’t necessarily tell you who is best for the job.
Some of the strongest candidates are already doing great work somewhere else. They’re not refreshing job boards or submitting applications — and they may only consider moving for a very specific opportunity.
This becomes particularly important when a beauty brand needs someone with a precise background: experience at certain brands, knowledge of a specific retail channel, expertise at a particular stage of growth, or a combination of skills that isn’t easy to find.
Rather than relying exclusively on inbound applications, we build a view of the talent pool, identify people who aren’t actively applying and approach the right candidates directly.
That gives brands something much more valuable than a stack of résumés: a clearer view of who’s actually available in the market.
The search itself should give you better information
Recruitment is also one of the few opportunities a company has to hear candid feedback from the talent market.
Candidates tell us things.
They tell us when compensation isn’t competitive. When a title doesn’t match the scope. When an office requirement is limiting the talent pool. When they’re excited about a brand — and when something about the opportunity is making them hesitate.
That information matters.
Throughout a search, GOOD PEOPLE shares real-time market intelligence around salary, title, location, organizational structure, brand perception and what would actually motivate someone to make a move.
Instead of spending three months wondering why the right candidates aren’t appearing, brands can use that feedback to adjust the search while it’s happening.
Beauty brands need specialists — but they also need the right kind of specialist
More specialization doesn’t necessarily mean hiring more people.
It means getting much clearer about the capabilities that will actually move the business forward.
A Director of Influencer Marketing who has built creator relationships may be very different from one who has built a measurable affiliate revenue channel.
A growth marketer who scaled a DTC brand through Meta may not be the person to build a retail-led growth strategy.
A marketing executive accustomed to managing a 30-person team may struggle in a founder-led environment where they’re expected to roll up their sleeves.
The title is only the starting point.
The real work is understanding what someone has built, where they’ve built it, how they’ve operated and whether that experience translates to your business.
When does bringing in a recruiting partner make sense?
Not every hire requires a search partner.
But outside expertise becomes particularly valuable when the role is senior, urgent, confidential, highly specific or difficult to fill — or when you’ve had a position open for a while and still haven’t seen the right candidates.
It’s also valuable when the stakes are high enough that you don’t simply want a qualified candidate.
You want confidence that you’ve looked at the market and are making the best hiring decision available to you.
For the right brief, GOOD PEOPLE can typically deliver a shortlist of qualified, interested and assessed candidates within 2–3 weeks.
Good recruitment isn’t just finding candidates
Ultimately, that’s what has changed most about recruiting in beauty.
Access matters. But access alone isn’t enough.
The value is in helping a company define what it needs, understand the market, reach talent it wouldn’t otherwise reach, evaluate that talent properly and make a hiring decision with confidence.
Or, put more simply, our clients come to us for three things:
Judgment. Access. Execution.
Because hiring is expensive.
Hiring the wrong person is considerably more expensive.
And as beauty businesses become more sophisticated, the work that happens before the shortlist matters more than ever.
Planning a key beauty hire?
Whether you’re building out your leadership team, searching for highly specialized talent or have a role that’s proving harder to fill than expected, we’d love to hear what you’re working on.
