Beauty’s game of executive musical chairs is expected to continue into 2026.
Sure, companies big and small have right-sized their teams; AI is driving shifts in desired skill sets; and businesses of all sizes are consolidating via mergers and acquisitions. Leading headhunters, though, are still expecting a solid and fluid job market.
“2026 will likely be a year of continued consolidation and increased discipline. Some brands will struggle to meet a higher bar, while both emerging and established players will need to adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape,” said Caroline Pill, global sector leader of fashion, beauty and luxury at London-based Heidrick & Struggles. “A key part of that evolution is the continued integration of AI — not just operationally, but in how brands engage with consumers, how customers shop, and how loyalty is built. This will fundamentally shift how brands think about attracting, retaining and speaking to their audiences.”
Given L’Oréal’s acquisitions of Kering’s beauty licenses and Creed, E.l.f. Beauty’s acquisition of Rhode and the snapping up of Kenvue, “All of a sudden you will have redundancies,” said David Treussard, founder and managing partner of search firm Callahan & Westmoreland. “There’s going to be moves, there’s going to be changes. 2025 seemed like a transition year.”
Treussard expects movement across business functions, but particularly in sales. “Marketing, finance, technology, supply chain — all of that is going to be impacted by AI right away,” he said. “But you need people with sharper skills, that are very good at interacting with consumers or buyers.”
The trend in fractional C-suite executives is also expected to continue. “A lot of very good candidates have decided they don’t want back into the performance pressure of running an indie brand or working with founders and investors,” said Martin Kartin, founder of his eponymous search firm. “The very successful ones find they have so much to offer to so many different outlets. And clients, in order to save money, are saying they’d entertain someone fractional as well.
“I don’t think it’s going to overtake the marketplace, but I think the camp is divided,” Kartin continued. And although seasoned beauty executives are heading to the wellness and ingestibles space, he sees runway ahead in beauty, particularly in product development. “The demand for really good senior product development people is enormous,” he said. “It’s no longer a question of companies hiring senior people on the marketing side. But on the product development and supply chain side, there’s been enough growth of the indie brands that they need equivalent-level people in those two disciplines.”
At the highest level, “You always have companies that hire their top jobs from one level down, which is the ideal situation for everybody,” Treussard said. “There’s not a lot of people coming from outside the industry. Based on what we have right now, it seems that 2026 should be a very solid year in terms of executive hiring, unless something really unpredictable happens. The toughest part is behind us.”
