Sr Manager - Enterprise AI Delivery Lead

Ulta Beauty, Inc. • Bolingbrook, IL

1d • 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: We are seeking a highly experienced and dynamic Enterprise AI Delivery Lead to oversee the successful execution and delivery of multiple, concurrent AI projects. This role will manage and oversee five or more independent AI delivery pods, ensuring they operate efficiently, adhere to agile principles, and deliver high-quality, impactful solutions on time. The ideal candidate is a seasoned technology delivery expert with a deep understanding of agile methodologies, proven ability to navigate complex, matrixed organizational structures, and a talent for managing cross-functional teams. Experience providing oversight for projects utilizing multiple professional services firms is an advantage. This role requires a blend of leadership, hands-on operational management, and an unwavering commitment to driving predictable, high-velocity delivery across the Enterprise AI portfolio.

Requirements

• Technology Delivery Leadership: 8+ years of progressive experience in technology delivery, with at least 3+ years managing a large portfolio of 3 or more concurrent, independent agile teams (Scrum/Kanban).
• Agile Expertise: Deep, practical expertise in agile development and delivery frameworks (e.g., Scrum, SAFe, LeSS) and proven ability to scale agile practices.
• Matrixed Organization Experience: Demonstrated success in operating, influencing, and achieving results within complex, large-scale, matrixed organizations.
• Communication & Influence: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical issues to both technical and executive audiences.
• AI/ML Familiarity: Strong understanding of the AI/ML product lifecycle, including MLOps principles, data pipelines, model training, deployment, and monitoring.
• Tooling Proficiency: Expert-level proficiency with agile project management tools, specifically Jira, including setup, advanced reporting, and dashboard creation.
• Service Management Acumen (Plus): Experience or familiarity with enterprise service management platforms like ServiceNow for change management, incident resolution, and release tracking.

Nice To Haves

• Certifications: Relevant certifications such as Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), or similar agile/lean certifications.
• Prior experience in retail, supply chain, e-commerce or consumer data environments

Responsibilities

• Manage Multiple AI Pods: Provide overarching leadership and direction for 5+ AI delivery pods (comprising data scientists, machine learning engineers, and software engineers), ensuring alignment with overall business objectives and technology strategy.
• Establish cadences that enable transparency, accountability, and proactive risk management across multiple teams and stakeholders
• Drive Agile Excellence: Ensure all delivery pods consistently apply and mature their use of agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid models) to maximize velocity, transparency, and responsiveness.
• Drive cross-functional execution using agile methodologies to maximize value and minimize time-to-market for Data & AI solutions
• Portfolio Health & Reporting: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics across all pods, proactively identifying and mitigating risks, bottlenecks, and dependencies. Provide regular, accurate status reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Drive adoption of shared delivery practices, reusable platforms, and consistent standards across business domains
• Manage External Partners (Bonus): Provide oversight and manage the operational relationship with staff augmentation professional services firms, ensuring external teams integrate effectively with internal processes and deliver against defined statements of work (SOWs).
• Matrix Navigation: Successfully navigate and partner with teams/stakeholders across a complex, matrixed organization (e.g., product, engineering, legal, security, and business units) to unblock teams and secure necessary resources and decisions.
• Process Standardization: Define, implement, and continuously improve standardized delivery processes, tooling, and best practices across the AI delivery portfolio.
• Facilitate enterprise-wide alignment by acting as the delivery bridge between centralized Data & AI teams and embedded functional units
• Delivery Tools: Leverage tools like Jira for agile planning, tracking, and reporting, and ServiceNow (or similar platforms) for incident, change, intake and service management processes where applicable.
• Budget & Resource Management: Partner with Program Management and Finance teams to manage budget allocation and resource capacity across the delivery pods.
• Team Leadership: Coach, mentor, and inspire Scrum Masters, Product team members and the tech teams to foster a culture of continuous improvement, ownership, and high performance.
• Conflict Resolution: Act as a central point of escalation for complex delivery conflicts, roadblocks, and priority disagreements.

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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees