Sr Manager Merchandising Space Operations

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