Senior Manager, Corporate Development and Strategic at Ulta Naperville, Illinois

Senior Manager, Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships

Ulta Beauty is the largest specialty beauty retailer in the United States and the place for the true beauty enthusiast who gets butterflies as she shops for beauty and experiments throughout our store. We are the only one to provide our guests prestige, mass and salon products and services under one roof - All Things Beauty, All in One Place™. We put our guests at the center of all we do, committing to offer her unrivaled ways to be beautiful in an environment that provides the thrill of exploration and delight of discovery.

Position Summary:

The Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships team is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing on new growth opportunities that support the broad, strategic vision for Ulta Beauty. The Senior Manager, Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships will be responsible for working closely with the Corporate Strategy and Project Management teams, as well as with key functional leaders across the company. This individual will lead problem solving and opportunity evaluation, including business and financial analysis to support decision-making for key projects, particularly as it relates to new business development, specific opportunity assessment (both organic and inorganic), and end-to-end investment and M&A evaluation for Ulta Beauty. A successful candidate must be naturally curious, self-motivated, able to prioritize effectively, and possess very strong financial modeling, problem-solving, and analytical skills. With direct access to senior executives, this individual will lead highly visible projects that will have a significant impact on the direction and performance of the company, and therefore should demonstrate strong executive presence and possess superior communication and presentation skills.

Core Job Responsibilities:

• Partner closely with the Corporate Strategy team, the Executive Team, and key cross-functional leaders to build and cultivate a pipeline of partnerships, acquisitions, and strategic investments to support the enterprise-wide strategic plan
• Partner with the SVP of Enterprise Strategy & Transformation and the Senior Director of Corporate Development & International on end-to-end evaluation (sourcing to integration planning) of potential M&A opportunities, investments, and other strategic partnerships
• Clearly and concisely present opportunities and communicate the implications and recommendations to senior leaders and executives
• Develop financial models, and valuation analyses, both independently and in partnership with finance team, that support decision-making
• Lead full due diligence process - in partnership with cross-functional leaders - including communications/meetings, information flow, summarizing key findings, and identifying/quantifying synergies and risk
• Bring creative, out-of-the-box thinking to identify white space opportunities: assess and articulate the strategic rationale, grounded in data-driven insights, in support of enterprise-wide strategy

Additional Responsibilities:

• Perform competitive analysis and tracking including the summarization of select peers' earnings reports on a quarterly basis
• Build external relationships to identify and capitalize on new opportunities in the market
• Develop deep perspective on the competitive landscape, integrating appropriate competitive, marketplace and other trends and insights to inform Ulta Beauty's Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships strategy
• Track active, inactive, and closed deal activities; review and manage inbounds received from internal and external parties

Requirements For Consideration:

• Bachelor's degree required and MBA from top-tier program strongly preferred
• 7 - 10 years of professional experience in Finance or Strategy
• Post-merger integration execution
• Cross-functional integration leadership
• Synergy tracking
• Operating model alignment
• 3+ years of investment banking or management consulting experience at a top-tier firm required
• Significant experience with three statement financial modeling
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills - ability to analyze opportunities with pragmatism
• Proven track record of leading projects across cross-functional teams
• Strong communication and confident influencing skills - including team leadership, thought leadership, collaboration, partnership across diverse team environments
• Well organized - ability to lead, manage, and prioritize multiple projects efficiently
• Highly motivated - exhibit flexibility and willingness to take on new responsibilities and assignments and to assist with various ad hoc projects as needed
• Experience in retail or consumer products preferred, but not required