Sr Manager Inventory Planning

Ulta Beauty, Inc.•Bolingbrook, IL

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Merchandise Transformation is a strategic leadership role responsible for shaping, leading, and scaling enterprise merchandising transformation capabilities as part of Project Brilliance, Ulta Beauty’s multi‑year transformation journey. Through Project Brilliance, we unite modern tools and bright thinking to move faster and smarter, modernizing processes, enabling future‑ready capabilities, and empowering teams to deliver smarter decisions that delight guests across every channel, every touchpoint, every product. This role owns a portfolio of transformation initiatives, setting direction, sequencing delivery, and ensuring sustainable adoption across Merchandising, MP&I, Supply Chain, Finance, and Technology. The Senior Manager serves as a trusted thought partner, translating enterprise strategy into prioritized roadmaps while ensuring transformation efforts deliver measurable business value, operational agility, and an improved guest experience.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
8+ years of progressive experience in merchandising, planning, supply chain, business operations, technology, or transformation roles
3+ years of people leadership experience, including managing managers preferred
Deep understanding of end‑to‑end merchandising and planning processes (assortment, inventory, replenishment, forecasting)
Proven experience leading complex, cross‑functional initiatives with enterprise impact
Demonstrated ability to lead ambiguity and orchestrate change at scale
Excellent communication, including the ability to share complex ideas and information across diverse audiences in a clear and succinct manner
Able to influence, advise, and lead a large number of cross-functional players across levels
Highly organized, solution-oriented, and able to prioritize in a dynamic environment.
Forward-thinking, results driven, and inclusive, encouraging innovation and diverse ideas.
Experience leading large-scale system or planning transformations
Familiarity with AI enabled planning, analytics, or modern merchandising platforms
Exposure to formal change-management methodologies

Responsibilities

Connect project initiatives directly to the organization’s high-level mission. Focus on design and project delivery aligned to the key strategic benefits. Help stakeholders and project participants understand how project success contributes to the "big picture".
Adopt a Facilitative Role: Rather than just managing tasks, use facilitation and guide discussions, resolve conflicts, and help teams reach decisions efficiently and proactively. Engage leaders when difficult topics impact timelines. Protect scope expansion and designing for endless variations, assist in focusing the teams on key priorities and business impact.
Leverage emotional intelligence to identify and address underlying concerns before they stall progress. This includes active listening to understand the true barriers in a partnership.
Challenge the status quo and develop innovative solutions. This creates an environment where creativity thrives and team members take ownership of complex problem-solving.
Foster communication with cross-functional leaders to insure all business categories are considered.
Translate transformation vision into multi‑phase execution plans, balancing speed, adoption, and operational stability
Ensure consistent delivery standards across workstreams, including process design, system implementation, rollout, and stabilization
Anticipate enterprise‑level risks, dependencies, and change impacts, proactively driving mitigation strategies
Set the change management and enablement strategy for assigned transformation domains, ensuring readiness across impacted functions
Oversee role‑based training and adoption approaches to support sustained behavior change and new ways of working
Use adoption metrics, performance indicators, and feedback to assess effectiveness and drive continuous improvement
Define and track value realization metrics tied to transformation outcomes (speed, agility, decision quality, inventory health, guest impact)
Identify opportunities to optimize processes, tools, and governance post‑launch
Ensure lessons learned from each phase inform future releases and enterprise standards
Lead, develop, and inspire managers and associates through clear direction, coaching, and performance management
Build transformation capability and bench strength through talent development and knowledge sharing
Foster a culture that embraces change, accountability, and continuous learning
Represent Merchandise Transformation in enterprise governance forums, executive working sessions, and cross‑functional initiatives
Influence decision‑making through data‑driven recommendations and enterprise perspective
Act as a visible champion of Project Brilliance and modern ways of working