Business Head – Luxury Brands
Location: Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Experience: 12-14 years
About the Company
A Dubai-headquartered parent organization operates across fashion trading, manufacturing, retail, consulting, investment management, and property development. Its luxury fashion business was established in 2010 and has grown into a multi-brand retail platform with outlets across the UAE. The organization combines distribution, brand management, retail execution, and market development to build durable value for international luxury partners and high-end fashion labels. It is led by an experienced team with more than 20 years of combined industry expertise and works with global brands seeking disciplined entry and expansion in the region. The founder brings a background in luxury fashion entrepreneurship, while the Chief Executive Officer has focused on expansion, commercial performance, and profitable growth. This role will contribute to the next stage of building a stronger, more scalable luxury brand portfolio from Dubai while supporting the organization’s continued growth across premium fashion and related consumer categories.
About the Role
The Business Head – Luxury Brands will own end-to-end commercial performance and strategic direction for a multi-brand premium portfolio across the Middle East and North Africa. The role will translate global brand ambition into locally relevant product, merchandising, channel, and trading strategies across more than 100 points of sale and e-commerce. It will act as the key interface between international brand headquarters and local markets, ensuring collections, pricing, assortments, and go-to-market plans reflect regional demand without diluting brand identity. Success means improving sell-through, margin, productivity, customer relevance, and partner confidence. The leader will manage in-season decisions, influence range construction, and build a high-performing buying team. The portfolio will include internationally recognized premium fashion, lifestyle, accessories, and luxury consumer brands.
Key Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end commercial performance and strategic direction for a multi-brand premium portfolio across MENA, using P&L reviews, trading dashboards, and operating plans to improve profitable growth.
- Define regional product and merchandising strategy across more than 100 points of sale and e-commerce, aligning assortments, categories, and channel roles to demand and productivity goals.
- Serve as the primary interface between international brand headquarters and local markets, translating global collections into commercially relevant regional ranges while protecting brand identity.
- Lead assortment architecture, segmentation, depth, and pricing decisions across customer profiles and channels, improving product-market fit, full-price performance, and inventory productivity.
- Direct in-season trading decisions through sell-through, stock, margin, and markdown analysis, enabling faster interventions that protect profitability and reduce dependency on discounting.
- Influence brand partners on range construction, pricing architecture, product mix, and go-to-market plans, strengthening alignment between global strategy and MENA commercial realities.
- Build and develop a team of buyers through clear standards, coaching, scorecards, and decision rights, increasing commercial accountability, analytical rigor, and decision-making quality.
- Own the commercial success of priority premium and luxury brands by balancing brand equity with regional consumer expectations and strengthening competitive positioning across the GCC.
Essential Skills & Technologies
- Demonstrated leadership of premium or luxury fashion, lifestyle, accessories, or consumer brand portfolios across MENA, with accountability for commercial performance, margins, and multi-channel growth.
- Deep expertise in buying, merchandising, assortment architecture, category strategy, range construction, pricing, segmentation, and full-price versus outlet channel management.
- Strong in-season trading capability using sell-through, stock cover, margin, markdown, productivity, and customer performance insights to make decisive commercial interventions.
- Experience managing relationships with international brand headquarters, influencing product mix, depth, pricing, collections, and go-to-market decisions across culturally diverse markets.
- Advanced commercial analysis using Excel, PowerPoint, ERP, e-commerce, retail analytics, and performance dashboards to convert product and trading data into profitable action.
- Proven team leadership experience developing buyers and commercial talent, establishing accountability, structured decision-making, and consistent execution across a broad portfolio.
- Executive communication and negotiation skills, with the credibility to balance global brand standards, local consumer expectations, partner priorities, and business economics.
Additional Plus
- Direct experience with international premium and luxury fashion, lifestyle, accessories, travel, beauty, or sports-luxury brands operating across the GCC or wider MENA region.
- Experience managing more than 100 points of sale alongside e-commerce, including full-price, outlet, department store, wholesale, and other regional channel models.
- Existing relationships with luxury and premium brand headquarters, regional retail partners, or GCC commercial stakeholders, supported by strong understanding of MENA consumer behavior.
What You'll Bring
- You will bring 12–14 years of progressive experience in buying, merchandising, commercial leadership, or portfolio management within premium or luxury fashion, lifestyle, accessories, or adjacent consumer sectors. Your background will demonstrate ownership of multi-brand performance across physical retail and e-commerce, ideally across MENA or the GCC.
- You know how to translate global collections into locally optimized assortments, define category-level strategies, and balance full-price and outlet economics. You will be confident using performance insights to drive in-season actions, improve sell-through, protect margins, and reduce markdown dependency.
- You can influence international headquarters on range construction, product depth, pricing architecture, and market approach while preserving brand identity. You will also bring experience building and developing buying teams, strengthening accountability, analytical discipline, and decision quality.
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience is expected. Above all, you combine commercial decisiveness with strong product instinct, regional consumer understanding, and the relationship skills required to represent a premium portfolio credibly.
Why Join Us
This is an opportunity to shape the next chapter of an established Dubai-based luxury fashion platform with a growing multi-brand footprint across the UAE. You will influence portfolio strategy, partner relationships, product direction, retail performance, and regional expansion across a substantial physical and digital network. The role offers meaningful visibility with international luxury principals and direct impact on the organization’s commercial direction. You will work in an entrepreneurial environment where decisions can move quickly, supported by a leadership team with deep industry experience and a clear ambition to build sustainable, profitable growth. The position also provides the chance to develop buyers, strengthen operating systems, and create more locally relevant customer experiences for respected global brands. For a commercially rigorous luxury leader, it combines ownership, market relevance, and the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on a growing MENA business.
What We Offer
- Lead a visible premium portfolio across MENA with direct influence over product strategy, assortment, trading performance, brand partnerships, and regional growth.
- Work closely with international brand headquarters and experienced leadership in a role combining strategic ownership, product influence, operating accountability, and entrepreneurial speed.
- Build and develop a high-performing buying team while shaping stronger systems, customer experiences, and commercial outcomes across more than 100 points of sale and e-commerce.
