Sr Director Marketing Strategy and Planning

Senior Director, Marketing Strategy & Planning

Experience the possibilities of our progressive, omnichannel approach to beauty retail. At Ulta Beauty, our Marketing team is applying the latest technologies to personalize the buying experience of true beauty enthusiastsin ways that surprise and delight. Building love and loyalty, one communication, one experience, one brilliant idea at a time. We represent the perfect blend of strategy and creativity. Of tactics and analytics. To make Ulta Beauty a brand guests will advocate for. Growing share of heart. Delivering with disciplined consistency. Whether your deepest passion is for design or content, strategy or data, or some combination of all things marketing, Ulta Beauty will provide significant latitude to explore your talents and passions, with opportunities to stretch and deepen, to grow and build. Truly, the possibilities are beautiful.

The Senior Director, Marketing Strategy & Planning is a critical leader responsible for shaping Ulta Beautys marketing agenda, setting priorities, and ensuring the seamless execution of integrated marketing strategies and plans that drive sales, fuel customer loyalty and strengthen brand equity. This role translates business and marketing objectives into clear strategies and activation plans, driving alignment across functions, channels, and customer segments.

Partnering with the Marketing Leadership Team, the Senior Director leads annual and long-term planning, establishes performance measures, and oversees governance to ensure resources are focused on the highest-impact opportunities, managing the reconciliation of new priorities throughout the year. The Senior Director operates in close partnership with cross-functional Marketing Team leaders of Brand Strategy, Category Marketing and Brand Partnerships, Customer Strategy, Loyalty, Strategic Analytics and Insight, and Paid and Owned Media, to ensure a unified, agile, and high-performing marketing organization. This leader also drives operational excellence by developing, optimizing, and communicating marketing processes, fostering consistency across the function, and ensuring organizational readiness through effective change management and storytelling. With deep collaboration across Marketing, Merchandising & Digital, IT, Retail Operations, Finance, HR, Procurement, and other corporate functions, the Senior Director ensures that marketing strategies are fully aligned with enterprise priorities and positioned to deliver measurable business impact.

You'll accomplish these goals by:

• Develop and lead the marketing strategy planning process from long-term strategy to annual marketing plans to seasonal and in-season execution to ensure plans are aligned with enterprise business goals and drive measurable impact.
• Establish and enforce marketing governance by defining priorities and decision-making frameworks to optimize focus and productivity across all marketing initiatives.
• Drive operational discipline across marketing functions by standardizing processes, implementing best practices, and ensuring consistency in execution across channels and teams, including management of key leadership decision-making forums.
• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) for marketing programs, campaigns, and initiatives to measure effectiveness, ROI, and alignment with business objectives, and establish proper cadence and reviews of marketing performance against strategy and plans.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders including Merchandising, Digital, IT, Retail Operations, Finance, HR, and Procurement to ensure alignment of marketing strategy with enterprise priorities.
• Oversee marketing forecasting and resource planning, including budget management, capacity planning, and allocation of investments to maximize ROI and business outcomes.
• Implement change management practices to support new marketing processes, tools, and initiatives, ensuring organizational readiness and adoption across the marketing function.
• Drive continuous improvement by evaluating workflows, identifying inefficiencies, and implementing process optimizations to increase productivity and operational excellence.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and professional growth.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior leadership, translating marketing data, insights, and performance metrics into actionable recommendations that guide enterprise decision-making.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within the Marketing organization.

The essentials of success:

• Bachelors degree in Marketing, Business, or related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 12 years of progressive experience in marketing with varied experiences across brand strategy, brand and/or integrated marketing, loyalty, media, customer insights, or marketing operations within a complex, multi-channel organization, ideally in retail or beauty industry.
• Experience implementing marketing processes, workflow optimizations, and change management initiatives to improve efficiency and effectiveness across large teams.
• Proven ability to develop and execute enterprise-level marketing strategies that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Strong financial, business, and customer acumen with an ability to link marketing activities to broader business and customer KPIs.
• Executive presence with exceptional communication, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• High emotional intelligence, influencing skills, and the ability to build relationships across levels and functions.
• Demonstrated ability to operate with agility, manage competing priorities, and lead through ambiguity.
• Passion for developing others, building high-performing teams, and contributing to a positive, inclusive culture.

The pay range for this position is $201,900.00 - $250,000.00 / Year with the opportunity for eligible associates to earn additional compensation pursuant to the Companys 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. For additional information concerning our benefits, visit our Benefits and Career Development page.

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.