11 Jobs In The Fragrance Industry (With Salaries And Duties)

Updated 2 January 2023

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High-quality fragrances and scents are luxury products and an important consumer good. As a result, fragrance industry jobs are usually lucrative and valuable for ambitious professionals. If you are looking to get into the fragrance industry, getting started with entry-level jobs can help you get on the promotional ladder for senior roles. In this article, we explore 11 jobs in the fragrance industry, provide up-to-date salary information and describe their primary duties.

What Can I Expect From Jobs In The Fragrance Industry?

Jobs in the fragrance industry include all the traditional operational roles that drive a consumer-centric business with a focus on sales and product development. Perfumers and product development engineers train for many years to work on designing the perfume itself. With premium brands and products, salespeople and financial advisors can find decent salaries and lucrative benefits packages in successful roles. Entry-level roles usually pay a standard rate but offer potential for internal recruitment and experience that can later lead to senior roles.

How Flexible Are Jobs In The Perfume Industry?

The perfume industry can offer the same flexibility for jobs as any traditional job with different levels of contract to suit your needs. Here are some examples of flexible contracts you can take up in the perfume industry:

Remote work: Some fragrance jobs allow you to work remotely if they are office-based or creative roles. This often applies to roles in advertising and online activity such as marketing, content writing, front-end web design or graphic design roles.
Part-time work: Companies offer some roles in the fragrance industry on a part-time or seasonal contract, especially in retail and sales. If you want the flexibility of working part time and want to work on site with colleagues, this may be a suitable fit for you.
Independent sales: Fragrance and cosmetic companies regularly employ professionals to advertise products with samples and direct sales locally and in stores. They are indistinguishable from regular staff to a consumer but can have alternative contract structures and commission-based payment systems.
Freelance: You can work in the perfume industry as a freelance content writer, marketer or designer working on aspects of a company's promotional material. This gives you the flexibility to work independently and remotely and get paid for deliverables rather than earn an hourly rate.
Consultancy: The business development side of fragrance industries regularly hires consultants and managers from recruitment agencies. If you want to get into fragrances following a degree but have little direct experience, going into consultancy can be a great way of getting a placement with a fragrance brand.

11 Fragrance Industry Jobs To Consider

If you want to work in the fragrance industry but are unsure of what specific job title to pursue, there are some standard job roles that are common to most companies. Here are 11 examples of fragrance industry jobs that you can consider:

1. Perfumer

National average salary: ₹3,55,409 per year

Primary duties: A perfumer, or fragrance chemist, is responsible for the development and creation of the fragrances and perfumes that brands sell. They often have a background in chemistry and are knowledgeable about substances and potential hazardous effects on the human body. Perfumers can be purely scientific and developmental, or they can be creative and artistic, designing bottles and branding material as well. This role may appear under other job titles, such as product development engineer, and companies usually advertise them on their site or social media rather than on job boards.

2. Finance Manager

National average salary: ₹7,60,705 per year

Primary duties: A finance manager handles the accounts, income, budget, wages and expenses of a company, franchise or store. They use statistics, models and business data to make predictions about business performance and expenditure. They use this information to budget appropriately and make financial decisions or advise executives on how to improve performance. If you have an education or professional background in maths or sales, this is a high-demand position that can make you employable for many fragrance brands.

3. Retail Sales Associate

National average salary: ₹2,17,958 per year

Primary duties: A retail sales associate handles shop-floor activities such as stocking shelves, serving customers and offering sales advice. This job is a standard entry-level position that allows you to represent a brand and get experience working in the fragrance industry. This sort of experience can lead directly to supervisor or management jobs and high-profile client-facing roles like being a brand ambassador. It also offers contractual flexibility so that you can work while studying or on a seasonal basis.

4. Accounts Executive

National average salary: ₹2,52,231 per year

Primary duties: An accounts executive oversees product sales at a store and is responsible for hiring staff, coordinating events and managing stock. Accounts executives liaise with fragrance wholesalers to supply retail stores and can either manage a single store or a group of stores for which they try to boost sales. They can earn bonuses and commissions for reaching sales targets and increasing a store's profitability. This is a good choice if you have a background in management in a separate industry and you want to be able to use those skills in the fragrances industry.

5. Lab Technician

National average salary: ₹2,10,898 per year

Primary duties: Lab technicians handle the chemical process and machinery involved in designing or mass producing fragrances. You handle a range of equipment and substances to mix, stabilise and prepare fragrances in a large laboratory for distribution and sale. Lab technicians often start as assistants and can progress to a full technician role with sufficient qualification and experience. If you want to work with the fragrances directly and be involved in the process, this can be a great starting point to get experience for internal promotion to other roles.

6. Chief Executive

National average salary: ₹4,97,079 per year

Primary duties: A chief executive, or someone working in another executive position, manages sales teams, creative ventures, decides on marketing direction and makes big brand decisions. Executives are heads of the company and can be in direct contact with shareholders, management and partners. They usually have degree-level education and a proven track record in management and sales. If you are looking to be the chief executive of a new start-up fragrance brand, your income depends entirely on the success of the business and can rise as the business becomes more profitable.

7. Risk Analyst

National average salary: ₹11,48,446 per year

Primary duties: A risk analyst or risk manager is an employee in a corporate role who assesses the risk of the company losing money and resources to different business outcomes. They use their calculations to develop actionable plans and proposals with project managers to mitigate this risk with initiatives and solutions. This role is suitable for anyone who wants to work as part of a team on the corporate side of the fragrance industry.

8. Marketing Manager

National average salary: ₹3,55,937 per year

Primary duties: A marketing manager is in charge of planning the promotional material for a fragrance brand and creating this material for advertising in media. Smaller companies and start-ups may employ a single manager who plans and produces material by themselves. Marketing managers for successful brands manage a large team of designers and writers to produce this content.

9. Data Analyst

National average salary: ₹5,08,768 per year

Primary duties: The title data analyst refers to a range of roles that harvest, interpret and report on data to help companies make financial and developmental decisions. Fragrance companies may use data analysts to assess and predict the performance of current and future products, find gaps in the market or inform on investment decisions. Analysts may produce reports, models and simulations to demonstrate performance to shareholders and investors at board meetings.

10. Graphic Designer

National average salary: ₹2,63,033 per year

Primary duties: Graphic designers work for marketing managers as part of the team that produces the promotional material for a brand. Since advertising and media are responsible for boosting sales of premium goods, fragrance companies invest a great deal of money in their marketing teams. It is important to capitalise on trends and gaps in the market, so graphic designers in fragrances are knowledgeable about fashion and visual design trends. This is a good role if you want to work freelance or on a contractual basis with multiple companies.

11. Copywriter

National average salary: ₹3,40,004 per year

Primary duties: Copywriters produce promotional material, articles, blog posts and web content for fragrance companies online. This can include summarising the company's mission and ethos on their main web pages and writing product descriptions or blog posts to a strict style guide. This role can also cross over into social media or community manager roles that allow you to get involved in public relations. This is also a good position if you would like to work contractually as a freelancer with several medium profile businesses rather than a single brand.

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.