Sr Manager Media Strategy

OVERVIEW

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 enthusiasts—in 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 IMPACT YOU CAN HAVE

The Senior Manager, Media and Audience Strategy serves as a senior leader within Ulta Beauty's media organization, responsible for leading category media strategy, audience-first planning, and capability development across Core Media and UB Media. This role leads a team of category media strategists and establishes the frameworks, standards, and strategic direction that connect enterprise-funded and brand-funded media investments to drive stronger business outcomes and a more connected guest experience.

In partnership with Business Strategy, Analytics, Integrated Marketing, Merchandising, UB Media, and external agency teams, the Senior Manager identifies opportunities for greater alignment, improved media effectiveness, incremental revenue, and long-term business growth. The role leads strategy across the category portfolio and integrated media planning, while advancing audience activation, measurement approaches, channel best practices, and innovation across the organization.

The Senior Manager plays a key role in advancing Ulta Beauty's evolution toward a more audience-first, integrated approach to media by connecting business objectives, consumer and category insights, first-party data, and media strategy. This role influences senior stakeholders, guides complex strategic decisions, and builds the processes and capabilities needed to scale best-in-class media planning across Core Media and UB Media.

The ideal candidate balances strategic vision with operational excellence and brings a deep understanding of full-funnel media strategy, audience-first planning, and the evolving retail media ecosystem. They are an experienced people leader who is comfortable navigating ambiguity, influencing across a highly matrixed organization, and connecting teams around a shared vision for growth.

This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of Ulta Beauty's integrated approach to enterprise-funded media and brand-funded retail media investments, ensuring both work together to deliver stronger business outcomes and a more connected guest experience.

YOU'LL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS BY

CATEGORY STRATEGY & BUSINESS PLANNING

Lead media strategy across the category portfolio, ensuring individual category strategies align to Ulta Beauty business priorities, UB Media advertiser objectives, guest insights, and enterprise media opportunities while identifying opportunities that span categories and create broader enterprise value.

This Lead cross-category strategic planning for annual planning, seasonal moments, and key enterprise initiatives, identifying opportunities that extend beyond individual categories or campaigns.

Guide Managers in developing category roadmaps and strategic recommendations, providing senior-level consultation on complex business opportunities, investment decisions, and stakeholder needs.

Partner with Merchandising, UB Media Sales, Analytics, Integrated Marketing, Core Media, and agency leadership to identify category growth opportunities and align media priorities across the organization.

Identify opportunities to drive incremental revenue through advertiser investment, innovative media solutions, and scalable cross-functional partnerships and develop client-facing materials for Sellers to present to advertisers.

Synthesize category performance, consumer trends, competitive activity, and marketplace developments to identify broader implications and inform future business and media strategy.

AUDIENCE STRATEGY

Own paid media audience strategy across Core and UB Media, defining and evolving audience-first planning principles, frameworks, and capabilities that improve media effectiveness and business outcomes.

Partner with Business Strategy, Analytics, CRM, agency teams, and other cross-functional partners to translate consumer insights and first-party data into actionable paid media audience strategies.

Guide the application of audience strategy across category and integrated media plans, connecting audience selection, customer journeys, channel activation, and business objectives to improve media effectiveness.

Establish audience planning best practices and frameworks that enable consistent application, measurement, and learning across the organization.

Stay ahead of evolving audience capabilities, privacy considerations, platform changes, and marketplace trends to inform future paid media strategy and innovation.

MEDIA & CHANNEL STRATEGY

Define and evolve integrated media planning principles and frameworks that connect Core Media and UB Media investments and enable a consistent, integrated approach to planning.

Set the strategic standard for integrated media planning across the team, guiding complex and high-priority strategies to ensure recommendations connect audience, channel mix, customer journey, investment, flighting, measurement, and business objectives.

Oversee Channel Center of Excellence priorities across the team, ensuring Managers develop strong channel expertise while driving consistency, adoption of best practices, and continued capability development.

Establish and evolve media and channel best practices informed by industry trends, emerging technologies, platform capabilities, and changing consumer behavior.

Serve as a senior strategic partner to internal stakeholders and agency leadership, influencing media priorities and ensuring enterprise and retail media investments work together to maximize business impact..

MEASUREMENT, INNOVATION & GROWTH

• Partner with Analytics and agency leadership to establish measurement approaches, learning agendas, and success criteria that evaluate media effectiveness and inform future investment decisions.
• Translate performance insights, audience learnings, and category results into cross-category recommendations and strategic priorities.
• Establish a culture of continuous learning and experimentation, guiding test-and-learn priorities and ensuring learnings are translated into scalable planning practices.
• Identify and champion new media capabilities, products, partnerships, automation opportunities, and monetization strategies that advance Ulta Beauty's media ecosystem.
• Develop thought leadership and strategic points of view that anticipate marketplace changes and position Ulta Beauty and UB Media for long-term growth.

TEAM LEADERSHIP & CAPABILITY DEVLEOPMENT

Lead and develop a high-performing team of category media strategists, establishing clear priorities and accountability while raising the team's strategic, commercial, and media planning capabilities.

Establish and evolve the category strategy operating model, ensuring consistency in planning, strategic recommendations, channel expertise, and cross-functional engagement.

Guide and challenge team strategies and recommendations, ensuring work connects business objectives, category opportunities, consumer insights, audience strategy, and media investment while raising the quality and consistency of strategic output.

Coach and develop team capabilities across category strategy, integrated media planning, retail media network monetization, audience activation, measurement, innovation, and executive storytelling.

Define and optimize ways of working across internal teams, agencies, and cross-functional partners to improve collaboration, efficiency, and quality of strategic output.

Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and growth-mindset team culture while assessing organizational capabilities and future talent needs.

THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS

• Minimum 10 years of experience developing integrated media strategies across traditional and digital channels – with a current emphasis on social and digital channels
• Experience leading integrated media strategy across multiple channels, business units, or stakeholder groups.
• 3+ years of experience leading complex media strategy and activation across audience-driven, performance, brand, and/or retail media initiatives.
• 3+ years of management experience
• Deep understanding of the media landscape, media consumption, and how to connect strategic thought leadership with activation across digital and traditional channels
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, culture, media consumption, and category dynamics, with demonstrated ability to translate those insights into actionable media strategies.
• Strong understanding of audience-first marketing and the application of first-party data within media planning and activation.
• Able to manage multiple priorities from different parts of the business and influence resource allocation based on business impact
• Experience motivating and inspiring partner teams towards shared goals, translating channel needs and results for the context in which they are delivered
• Strong critical thinking and communication skills (written and verbal) – comfortable leading, presenting and contributing at all levels
• A dual-brained thinker – strong analytics approach to data and measurement, and ability to extract relevant and actionable insights that drive business results
• Must have experience working in matrixed organization settings, collaborating with cross-functional teams and business units, and managing/influencing external agency partners

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The pay range for this position is $119,300.00 - $140,000.00 / 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. For additional information concerning our benefits, visit our Benefits and Career Development page: https://learn.bswift.com/ulta

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 Beauty’s own private label. Ulta Beauty also offers a full-service salon in every store featuring—hair, 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.