Manager, AI Engineering

OVERVIEW

Live the experience. From professional empowerment to continual learning opportunities. From ongoing investment in new and emerging technologies to a career of self-determination. At Ulta Beauty, our tech 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 MAKE:

We are seeking a Manager of AI Engineering to join the AI Engineering practice at Ulta Beauty. This is a people-first leadership role — your primary output is engineers who grow and a team that delivers. You succeed when your engineers develop, when the work is done well, and when the practice earns credibility through consistent, high-quality output.

You are a technical leader who has chosen to multiply impact through people rather than through individual contribution. You can get hands-on when the situation requires it — but by default, your energy goes into developing your team, removing blockers, and creating the conditions for senior engineers to do their best work. The best version of this role is one where you rarely need to write the code, because your team doesn’t need you to.

YOU'LL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS BY:

People Development & Team Leadership

• Lead a team of AI engineers owning their development, performance, and day-to-day experience.
• Build individual development plans grounded in each engineer’s goals, strengths, and the needs of the practice — and follow through on them consistently.
• Create the conditions for your team to do its best work: clear expectations, timely feedback, and a culture where the best idea wins regardless of who it comes from.
• Identify and address performance gaps early — with honesty, care, and a concrete path forward.

Delivery Oversight & Technical Partnership

• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of AI engineering initiatives across your team’s projects, ensuring work is scoped, prioritized, and executed with quality.
• Support technical direction by partnering with Lead and Staff AI Engineers — validating decisions, asking the right questions, and stepping in hands-on when the team or the moment requires it.
• Identify delivery risks early and drive the conversations needed to resolve them before they become blockers.
• Balance technical feasibility, business priorities, and team capacity in a fast-moving environment where both the technology and the requirements evolve constantly.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Practice Execution

• Represent the AI Engineering team in cross-functional discussions with AI Architecture, Data Science & ML, product, and business stakeholders — translating between engineering realities and business expectations.
• Execute the AI Engineering career path within your team: run development conversations, assess levels consistently, and deliver feedback grounded in the practice’s standards — not improvised.
• Apply and reinforce the engineering standards, rituals, and ways of working defined for the practice — ensuring your team operates consistently with how the practice is expected to function.
• Execute hiring and onboarding within the criteria and direction set by the Director of AI Engineering — representing your team’s needs clearly and integrating new engineers effectively.

ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS:

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred. Equivalent professional experience will be considered.
• 7+ years of professional experience in software engineering, data science, or a related.
• 3+ years of direct people management experience leading technical teams — with demonstrated responsibility for hiring, development, and performance.
• Strong technical foundation in software engineering and AI, enough to engage as a peer in technical discussions, and step in hands-on when the team needs it.
• Demonstrable exposure to the AI engineering space agentic systems, LLM-based applications, or production ML enough to understand what your team is building and what it takes to build it well.
• Proven ability to develop senior technical talent: not just manage workload but actively grow the people on your team.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills to communicate complex ideas to various audiences in both a technical and user-friendly language
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills — you translate between technical and non-technical audiences naturally, and you build trust across disciplines without relying on authority.
• The disposition to measure your own success by what your team delivers and how your engineers grow — not by your individual technical contributions. You lead through others, not instead of them.
• Experience operating in agile delivery environments with cross-functional teams.
• Travel may be required (team collaboration / conferences).

Nice to Have

• Experience managing or partnering with AI engineering teams working on agentic systems, LLM pipelines, or enterprise AI integrations.
• Familiarity with the Google Cloud or OpenAI enterprise ecosystem — enough to understand the tooling your team operates on.
• Background that spans both IC and people leadership roles — having operated at a technical level before transitioning to management.
• Prior work in retail, e-commerce, or consumer-facing technology environments.

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.