Wellness Director

OVERVIEW

Live the experience. From professional empowerment to continual learning opportunities. From ongoing investment in our strategic initiatives to a career of self-determination. At Ulta Beauty, our 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:

The Director Wellness will lead the growth and operations of the Wellness category, overseeing everything from strategic planning to execution. This role is ideal for a visionary leader with an entrepreneurial mindset, capable of scaling both expanding within current retail concepts and scaling a new retail concept while ensuring strong financial performance and operational excellence. The Director Wellness will lead strategy, brand positioning, store operations, customer experience, marketing and omnichannel integration aspects – both directly and through working closely with cross-functional partners.

The Director will report directly to the VP Wellness Commercial Lead, within the Enterprise Strategy & New Growth organization. The role will partner closely with the Senior Director Merchandising (Wellness) and their merchandising organization, along with other key peers and leaders across the business. This role will have visibility to senior leadership including the CEO, CFO, Chief Merchandising Officer, SVP Enterprise Strategy & New Growth, among others. The Director Wellness will lead a team including cross-functional specialists to execute against this business growth mandate.

CORE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leads Wellness day-to-day execution in alignment with the overall business strategy; serving as a critical leader in the Wellness team; partnering closely with leadership and cross-functionally, VP Wellness Commercial Lead. Key responsibilities include:

• Wellness Growth Strategy: Develop & execute a comprehensive go-to-market strategy for the Wellness business at Ulta Beauty; conduct market and consumer research to identify customers, competitive positioning and pricing strategies; build and refine the business case & operating model to ensure scalability and profitability; establish and measure KPIs for sales growth, market penetration and awareness
• Brand Building & Customer Experience: Define and execute, with Marketing as a key partner, a brand identity and marketing strategy that differentiates the business in the market; develop and engaging in-store experience that aligns with brand values and consumer insights; develop and execute and elevated digital experience to create a seamless shopping experience
• Retail Operations & Financial Management: Work cross-functionally to identify and oversee store growth and design; develop and manage budgets, P&L and financial forecasts to drive profitability; implement ways of working (incl operating model, reporting, system support, etc.)to support seamless operations and scalability
• External Growth & Partnership Opportunities: Bring creative, out-of-the-box thinking to identify white space opportunities and formulate approaches to address them; understand the market dynamics and identify potential external growth opportunities inclusive of strategic partnerships and M&A
• Ulta Beauty Voice (to Industry): Represent Ulta Beauty on panels, in media and as needed
• Team Leadership, Culture & Development: Recruit and develop a high-performing team to support business growth; lead, coach and develop direct and cross-functional team to achieve financial objectives and prepare them for success and broader responsibilities; foster a start-up mentality with an emphasis on agility, innovation and continuous improvement
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Balance competing interests and needs across the organization to arrive at a clear vision, communicating effectively and aligning various partners

THE ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS:

• 8 years of progressive experience in retail environments, including management, business development, startup environments and/or consulting
• Wellness experience a plus, preference for consumer-facing Retail experience in Beauty, Fashion or Apparel
• Strategic, analytical, and conceptual problem solver with the ability to look into the details and interpret the impact of key business drivers, detect patterns and trends across disparate sources of data, creatively analyze unfamiliar problems and synthesize the ‘so what’s’
• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to turn ambiguity into action
• Proven experience launching, scaling or transforming a retail business; entrepreneurial mindset with ability to take a concept from idea to execution
• Financially savvy and analytical, ability to gather, understand and analyze data and performance metrics essential to building a business/category within the growing and constantly changing landscape
• Demonstrated success in strong communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving and decision-making ability to quickly influence, establish relationships, gain credibility and trust with all audience levels
• Minimum of 5 years leading a team with a strong focus on team member growth and development that reinforces company culture and long-term growth
• High emotional intelligence and ability to style-flex your approach based on the needs of the brands, internal and external stakeholders