Director Merchandising Category Insights

Director, Merchandising Category Insights

Discover greater levels of performance. With over 1,300 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. Were not just growing, were 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 Director, Merchandising Category Insights will lead a team of strategy and category insights professionals, reporting to the VP, Merchandising Strategy & Growth. As part of the Strategy + Insights team, this role will spearhead the development of long-term and annual assortment and merchandising strategies that drive growth and profitability across all channels, in partnership with the strategy and market professionals.

This position requires a trusted thought partner who will be embedded within merchant teams, serving as the go-to resource for analysis and strategic guidance. The Director will work closely with Corporate Strategy, Merchandising Leadership, Executive Leadership, and cross-functional partners to build relevant market and competitive analyses that underpin strategic initiatives.

Key Focus Areas

• Category Pulse: Track and interpret developments across the beauty landscape, serving as a strategic thought partner to category merchant teams for day-to-day business operations.
• Trend Activation: Identify current trends and develop activation strategies to support existing business strategies.
• Performance Optimization: Conduct post-mortems on initiatives and support teams through execution with learnings and optimization recommendations.

You'll Accomplish This By

• Develop and lead strategic planning processes for Merchandising across long-term and annual planning cycles to support enterprise ambitions and objectives.
• Lead the development of Merchandising strategies through foundational analysis, problem structuring, white space identification and evaluation, strategy development and delivery.
• Support Annual Business Planning for Merchandising and Planning functions.
• Execute select strategic Merchandising initiatives throughout the year in alignment with overall strategy.
• Monitor and report on progress against strategy regularly, including development of reporting processes, KPIs, and cadence.

• Develop and lead ongoing proactive analyses and insights for categories and major cross-category trends and opportunities.
• Collaborate with Merchandising VPs and SVPs to provide insights on key priority topics to support business growth.
• Lead development of select event hindsight analyses, deriving insights to drive future event growth and evolution.
• Support key brand partner meetings and pitches throughout the year to grow the business.

• Own and manage relationships for key market and trend data resources, including Circana (NPD, IRI), Trendalytics, and others.
• Lead and deliver actionable market data and insights to the enterprise that drive business forward.
• Maintain category pulse and trend monitoring capabilities.
• Build and deliver informative assessments of the competitive beauty landscape, including promotional activity, earnings calls, and industry research.
• Support critical enterprise reporting and business cycle needs, including quarterly earnings support and quarterly/monthly business review meetings.

• Conduct post-mortems on initiatives and support teams through execution with learnings and optimization strategies.
• Modernize and standardize ad-hoc and regular reporting processes.
• Build, develop, and lead a high-performing, highly valued team.
• Establish and evaluate best-in-class structure, processes, and tools for team success.
• Guide the team in defining templates, reports, and materials for periodic category reviews and brand meetings.
• Identify opportunities for automation of processes and data analytics/reports.
• Lead and support complex, time-critical projects as identified by executive leadership (ABP, Brand Partner Summit, Investor Day).

The Essentials For Success:

• Bachelor's degree required
• Minimum 10-15 years of relevant direct work experience
• 3-5 years of strategy consulting experience with a top-tier consulting firm preferred
• Minimum 5 years of direct people management experience, including hiring, developing, motivating, and directing team members
• Proven experience developing strategy with demonstrated enterprise thinking
• Strong conceptual thinking abilities with capability to translate business issues into key hypotheses using structured problem-solving approaches
• Inquisitive nature and proactive approach to data exploration and opportunity identification
• Ability to manage ambiguity and apply business acumen and strategic thinking to determine optimal paths forward
• Demonstrated ability to influence and gain credibility with team members and senior leaders
• Capability to work in dynamic environments, handle multiple projects, meet deadlines, and prioritize appropriately
• Strong bias for action and ability to respond to issues quickly and creatively with a positive attitude
• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with ability to communicate complex topics simply and effectively

Technical Skills

• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills required
• Intermediate experience with data mining and writing queries preferred (SQL preferred)
• Intermediate data visualization skills preferred (Tableau preferred)
• Previous experience with market measurement tools such as Circana, NIQ (legacy Nielsen, IRI, NPD), Euromonitor preferred

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA from a top-tier school preferred

The pay range for this position is $145,000.00 - $195,000.00 / 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.

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 Beautys own private label. Ulta Beauty also offers a full-service salon in every store featuringhair, 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.