Sr Manager Merchandising Space Operations

OVERVIEW

Discover greater levels of performance. With over 1,400 stores throughout the U.S. and an innovative omni-channel ecosystem, Ulta Beauty is revolutionizing the beauty retail experience. Ulta Beauty is expanding its digital capabilities, opening new stores on a continual basis and re-designing existing locations with the latest design and technological advancements for heightened guest experiences. We’re not just growing, we’re thriving through consistent innovation and a bold commitment to re-imagination. If you want the opportunity to build something strategic, to take ownership of your career trajectory, to apply your passion to operational excellence, Ulta Beauty provides the kind of stability and support few organizations can match. So be curious. Be flexible. Be more than you thought possible. The future is yours at Ulta Beauty.

THE IMPACT YOU CAN HAVE:

The Senior Manager of Merchandising Space Operations will lead the strategy, design and implementation of a new operating framework for planning, governing and optimizing short-term retail space across all stores, including secondary placements, promotional space, and seasonal opportunities. This role will establish the long-term end-to-end scalable process that aligns merchandising, planning, visual/creative and store execution teams to maximize the productivity of short-term space while creating a consistent, cross-functional approach to planning and execution. This role partners directly with cross-functional senior leadership in Merchandising, Planning, Visual Merchandising, Creative, Marketing, Store Operations, and Inventory to translate the merchandising and visual merchandising strategy into the tactical operations to execute across multiple teams. It is critical to develop a prioritization framework balancing brand goals, financial strategies, marketing timelines, and operational communication to inventory teams. Integration with the go-to-market process, project organization skills, and cross-team collaboration are critical for success in this role.

The successful candidate will assess current processes, identify opportunities for improvement, and design a comprehensive framework that balances customer experience, commercial objectives, and operational feasibility. A key focus of the role will be driving cross-functional alignment with senior leaders and adoption by engaging stakeholders, building clear governance structures, and embedding decision-making processes that support effective execution. The position will have 1 direct report that will be responsible for executing planograms and assignments of assortments to stores.

YOU'LL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS BY:

• Develop and implement a standardized framework for planning assortments within short-term, secondary, and promotional space ensuring alignment with merchandising priorities and long-term business objectives.
• Define planning principles, decision criteria, and processes that support strategic space allocation and assortment optimization balancing customer experience, commercial objectives, inventory productivity, and operational execution.
• Influence and align senior leaders across Merchandising, Inventory Planning, Space Planning, Visual Merchandising, Store Operations, and Analytics teams to ensure alignment and resolve competing priorities, and ensure consistent execution.
• Design and oversee governance models, decision rights, roles, responsibilities, and cross-functional operating processes that enable scalable execution, accelerate decision-making, and improve organizational effectiveness.
• Form clear checkpoints for Merch leadership approval in the execution and development of Visual Merchandising and creative strategies.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Create and implement success metrics, KPIs, and reporting mechanisms to measure effectiveness, compliance, and business impact.
• Identify opportunities to improve space productivity, promotional performance, and customer engagement through data-driven insights.
• Drive change management activities, stakeholder communication, and training to ensure successful adoption of the new framework.
• Deliver recommendations for continuous improvement and long-term scalability.

THE ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Retail Management, a related field or equivalent experience
• 8+ years of progressive experience in corporate retail: operations, space/floor planning, financial planning or merchandising
• 3+ years of people leadership experience, including managing managers preferred
• Strong strategic mindset, with critical reasoning and qualitative analysis experience (Power BI, Excel)
• Self-starter able to successfully execute against departmental goals with minimal guidance
• Proven leadership experience, with the ability to motivate and inspire team members.
• Able to influence and drive accountability among associates across multiple departments
• Able to develop presentation materials for communicating strategies to key stakeholders
• Enthusiastic, persistent, action-oriented, and a strong sense of accountability
• Detail-oriented with a passion for accuracy and quality assurance.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage competing priorities effectively.
• Strategic, analytical, and conceptual problem solver with the ability to look into the details and interpret the impact of key business drivers, detect patterns and trends across disparate sources of data, creatively analyze unfamiliar problems and synthesize the ‘so what’s’
• Financially savvy and analytical, ability to gather, understand and analyze data and performance metrics essential to building a strategy within the growing and constantly changing landscape
• Demonstrated ability to communicate, leveraging interpersonal skills, problem solving and decision-making ability to quickly influence, establish relationships, gain credibility and trust with all audience levels

The pay range for this position is $122,900.00 - $155,000.00 / Year with the opportunity for eligible associates to earn additional compensation pursuant to the Company’s bonus plan. Exact pay will be based on factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, level, shift, geographic location, and business and organizational needs. Full-time positions are eligible for paid time off, health, dental, vision, life and disability benefits. Part-time positions are eligible for dental, vision, life, and disability benefits. For additional information concerning our benefits, visit our Benefits and Career Development page: https://learn.bswift.com/ulta

ABOUT

At Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA), the possibilities are beautiful. Ulta Beauty is the largest North American beauty retailer and the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products and salon services. We bring possibilities to life through the power of beauty each and every day in our stores and online with more than 25,000 products from approximately 500 well-established and emerging beauty brands across all categories and price points, including Ulta Beauty’s own private label. Ulta Beauty also offers a full-service salon in every store featuring—hair, skin, brow, and make-up services.

We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest records, conviction records, or other criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of any applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the New York City Fair Chance Act.