Lead IT Engineer - Network Ops

Ulta Beauty, Inc.•Bolingbrook, IL

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

Live the experience. From professional empowerment to continual learning opportunities. From ongoing investment in new and emerging technologies to a career of self-determination. At Ulta Beauty, our tech team is critical to our scalability—and is recognized that way. We’ve been defined as a “mature start-up.” A place where interdepartmental exposure, open doors, and genuine collaboration is ubiquitous. Where challenges come fast and furious, requiring agility, mental dexterity, and creativity. Where our passion for better solutions drives us and is core to who we are. We’re engineering for the future of retail, and it’s no-holds-barred. But for those motivated by continual change and ambiguity, by superior leadership, by whip smart colleagues who will press you daily for your very best, you’ll find that virtually nothing’s impossible at Ulta Beauty. THE IMPACT YOU CAN HAVE: The Lead Network Operations Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, managing, and supporting Ulta’s enterprise network across corporate, distribution, and retail environments. This role oversees day-to-day network operations, ensures stability and performance, and drives incident response and continuous improvement. Additional responsibilities include establishing operational standards and procedures, contributing to architectural direction, and partnering with Enterprise and Infrastructure Architecture teams to deliver scalable and resilient solutions for a rapidly growing business. The Lead Network Operations Engineer serves as a senior technical expert who helps shape and execute the IT Network operations strategy. This position requires an experienced and technically oriented network expert who plays a key role in establishing and executing on the corporate strategy for IT Network team.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, a related field, 7+ years of enterprise network engineering or operations experience.
Deep expertise in routing, switching, WLAN, and network troubleshooting (Cisco preferred).
Strong experience supporting distributed or retail environments across multiple sites.
Proficiency with monitoring/visibility tools, packet analysis, and performance tuning.
Experience working with MSPs, carriers, and hardware/software vendors.
Solid understanding of ITIL-based incident, problem, and change management practices.
Excellent communication, escalation management, and stakeholder engagement skills.
Experience mentoring or coaching other engineers and influencing operational practices.
Ability to work in high-pressure incident situations and participate in 24x7 on-call rotation.

Nice To Haves

Experience in large retail or multisite operations environments
Exposure to enterprise-scale WLAN (Aruba, Cisco Meraki, Cato or similar).
Experience automating network operations (Python, Ansible, or automation platforms).
Experience with cloud connectivity or hybrid network models.
Relevant certifications (CCNP, CCDP, or vendor equivalents).
Familiarity with analytics & observability technologies (EXTRAHOP, DNAC, NetBrain, ThousandEyes, etc.).

Responsibilities

Network Operations and Support — Leads the day-to-day operational support of Ulta’s enterprise network. Develops procedures and documentation for operational support, coordinates escalations, and provides senior-level troubleshooting, diagnosis, and resolution of network issues. Ensures support requests are fulfilled in accordance with defined standards, SLAs, and operational processes.
Network Design & Operational Readiness — Participates in reviewing network architectures, designs, configurations, and standards with a focus on operational readiness, resiliency, and supportability. Ensures appropriate instrumentation, monitoring, security controls, and failover capabilities are included to enable effective operations.
Incident Management — Leads escalated network incidents, coordinates service restoration efforts, and ensures timely and accurate communication to stakeholders. Manages post-incident activities including documentation, closure, and problem management/root cause analysis to reduce recurrence.
Change Management — Evaluates operational risk and business impact associated with proposed network changes (availability, performance, security, and compliance). Leads change planning, documentation, execution, validation, and peer review in accordance with established change control procedures.
IT Infrastructure Operations — Provides technical expertise and leadership in executing operational procedures including patching, firmware upgrades, monitoring, capacity planning, and maintenance routines. Delivers improvement recommendations and operational status reporting to specialists, users, and management.
Monitoring, Analytics & Continuous Improvement — Develops and enhances network monitoring capabilities, dashboards, alerts, runbooks, and performance reporting. Identifies efficiency and quality improvements related to incident response, automation, lifecycle management, and operational workflows.
Lifecycle Management — Supports network lifecycle activities including capacity planning, EOL/EOS validation, hardware and software refresh, and vendor roadmap alignment. Coordinates with Architecture and Engineering to ensure smooth introduction of new technologies into the operational environment.
Vendor & MSP Coordination — Collaborates with carriers, service providers, and hardware/software vendors to resolve incidents, improve service quality, and enforce SLAs. Contributes to operational assessments of vendor capabilities, sourcing, and procurement decisions.
Operational Standards, Compliance & Documentation — Contributes to and enforces operational procedures, security controls, compliance requirements, and support standards across the network environment. Ensures operational impacts and risks are identified and addressed through process, documentation, and training.
Technical Leadership & Mentoring — Provides senior operational leadership, direction, mentoring, and escalation support to network engineers and analysts. Influences operational standards, incident best practices, and continuous improvement efforts across teams.
Design and deploy large scale enterprise LAN, WAN and WLAN solutions including routers, switches, firewalls, and other network related hardware.
Work closely with the business and IT to develop high performing, efficient, cost effective, and operationally supportable solutions that meet the business’ complex requirements.
Ensures operations of enterprise-level network hardware and data communications systems by minimizing system downtime and maximizing system performance.
Evaluate and identify opportunities for network performance, functionality, and improvement within the environment.
Collaborates closely with peer ULTA IT, Infrastructure, ITRM, Operations and business teams to deliver infrastructure services to support Enterprise applications (i.e., SA, JDA, HANA, Manhattan, GCP and Azure) throughout the company.
Interface with internal/external customers and vendors to determine system and application requirements.
Collaborate with Enterprise and Infrastructure Architecture teams to create and maintain standards and operating procedures, and provide information as appropriate to manager, project manager, and various departments within ULTA.
Lead development and implementation efforts to bring automation into the environment.
Conducts Infrastructure-specific project management activities; participates as an Infrastructure technical resource in business-related projects.
Performs IT network consulting, including the network certification process of new development, and acquisitions.
Conducts IT network research and development, as well as network/product evaluations and vendor certification.
Define requirements in support of budget plans and make recommendations for ways to improve performance and reduce costs.
Accountable for defining and reviewing project scope, execution checklists and validation tests and providing final go ahead to the team.

Benefits

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.

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