Divisional Assistant — Professional Products Division (PPD) South Africa
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa (Woodmead)
Division: Professional Products Division (PPD)
Contract type: Permanent, full-time
Reports to: General Manager, PPD South Africa (with functional collaboration across Marketing, Digital, and Product Management teams)
About L'Oréal Professional Products Division
The Professional Products Division is the historical heart of L'Oréal, partnering exclusively with hair salons and stylists worldwide. Our portfolio includes luxury and premium salon brands — L'Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase, Redken, Mizani, Pureology and Matrix — dedicated to empowering the hairdressing profession through innovation, education, and business support.
Role Overview
The Divisional Assistant is a unique dual-purpose role at the core of PPD South Africa. At its foundation, this role provides operational and administrative support to the General Manager. Beyond this, given the division's lean marketing structure, the role also provides valuable hands-on support to the Marketing team, Product Managers, and Digital function across their overflow projects, campaigns, and events.
This is intentionally structured as a development and exposure role: it gives an early-career candidate genuine, hands-on experience across brand marketing and digital execution, with a clear line of sight into future Junior Marketing or Junior Digital/Social roles as they become available. This path is proven — the current incumbent has been promoted into a full-time Junior Digital & Social Manager position based on the value she added while in this seat.
Key Responsibilities
Divisional & Operational Support (Core)
- Provide day-to-day administrative and operational support to the General Manager, including diary management, correspondence, and coordination of divisional meetings and reporting.
- Support the preparation of materials for internal business reviews and leadership presentations.
- Assist with general divisional coordination: travel, expenses, purchase orders, and supplier/vendor administration.
Marketing & Product Management Overflow Support
- Assist Marketing and Product Managers with the coordination and rollout of point-of-sale materials, sampling, and salon collateral.
- Support new product launch coordination, including timeline tracking, materials collation, and stakeholder briefing logistics.
- Help track marketing budgets, process purchase orders and invoices, and liaise with external agencies and suppliers on project delivery timelines.
- Support the collection of consumer, salon, and market insights, and assist with basic competitor/category tracking.
Digital, Social & Advocacy Overflow Support
- Assist in scheduling and publishing social media content calendars (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube) in line with global brand guidelines and campaign priorities.
- Support day-to-day community management: monitoring comments, messages, and brand mentions.
- Help coordinate influencer and stylist advocacy activity — shipping of press kits/product launches, tracking output, and consolidating basic coverage reports.
- Support event logistics for brand activations, launches, and salon/stylist events.
- Assist with website and e-commerce content updates (banners, product catalogs, store/salon locators) in partnership with the Digital team.
- Help consolidate weekly/monthly performance reporting (engagement, reach, campaign wrap-ups) for review by the Marketing and Digital teams.
This role provides coordination and execution support across marketing and digital projects — it does not own brand strategy, KOL relationship management, budget accountability, or campaign strategy. Those remain with the Marketing Manager, Product Managers, and Digital lead.
Candidate Profile
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree or Diploma in Marketing, Digital Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, or a related field.
- 0-2 years of experience; internship, graduate programme, or early brand/agency exposure advantageous.
Skills
- Highly organized, with the ability to juggle admin tasks alongside marketing/digital deadlines.
- Comfortable with Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint); familiarity with social media platforms and basic content tools (Canva, CapCut) is an asset.
- Good written communication skills; comfortable drafting simple on-brand copy.
- Basic familiarity with social analytics tools (Meta Business Suite, Google Analytics) is a plus, not a requirement.
Personal Attributes
- Proactive, curious, and eager to learn — genuinely interested in building a career in marketing or digital.
- Strong interpersonal skills; comfortable supporting multiple stakeholders (GM, Marketing, Product Managers, Digital) with competing priorities.
- Detail-oriented with a flexible, "whatever's needed" attitude — this role requires comfort moving between admin tasks and marketing/digital execution in the same day.
- Passion for the beauty and hairdressing industry.
- Alignment with L'Oréal's values: Passion, Innovation, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Open-mindedness, Quest for Excellence.
This role is designed as a launchpad. Strong performers gain direct, practical exposure to brand marketing and digital/social execution, positioning them for future roles such as Junior Marketing Manager or Junior Social & Digital Brand Manager within PPD, subject to business needs and role availability.
Who we are
L’Oréal is present in 150 markets on five continents. For more than a century, L’Oréal has devoted itself solely to ‘Create beauty that moves the world’; it is now the industry world leader with €42 billion consolidated sales. Together, we solve complex challenges at scale, while making sure we stay committed to making the world a more inclusive and a better place for everyone & our planet.
We’re committed to guaranteeing inclusive recruitment processes and to advocating for hiring and promoting each candidate in an ethical and equitable way. The Group strictly prohibits discrimination against any applicant for employment because of the individual’s gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, visible and/or invisible disabilities, socio-economic and/or multicultural origins, health conditions, age, religion, or any other characteristics protected by law.
