Lead IT Engineer - Network Ops

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 HAVE:

The Lead Network Operations Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, managing, and supporting Ulta’s enterprise network across corporate, distribution, and retail environments. This role oversees day-to-day network operations, ensures stability and performance, and drives incident response and continuous improvement. Additional responsibilities include establishing operational standards and procedures, contributing to architectural direction, and partnering with Enterprise and Infrastructure Architecture teams to deliver scalable and resilient solutions for a rapidly growing business.

The Lead Network Operations Engineer serves as a senior technical expert who helps shape and execute the IT Network operations strategy.

This position requires an experienced and technically oriented network expert who plays a key role in establishing and executing on the corporate strategy for IT Network team.

YOU'LL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS BY:

• Network Operations and Support — Leads the day-to-day operational support of Ulta’s enterprise network. Develops procedures and documentation for operational support, coordinates escalations, and provides senior-level troubleshooting, diagnosis, and resolution of network issues. Ensures support requests are fulfilled in accordance with defined standards, SLAs, and operational processes.
• Network Design & Operational Readiness — Participates in reviewing network architectures, designs, configurations, and standards with a focus on operational readiness, resiliency, and supportability. Ensures appropriate instrumentation, monitoring, security controls, and failover capabilities are included to enable effective operations.
• Incident Management — Leads escalated network incidents, coordinates service restoration efforts, and ensures timely and accurate communication to stakeholders. Manages post-incident activities including documentation, closure, and problem management/root cause analysis to reduce recurrence.
• Change Management — Evaluates operational risk and business impact associated with proposed network changes (availability, performance, security, and compliance). Leads change planning, documentation, execution, validation, and peer review in accordance with established change control procedures.
• IT Infrastructure Operations — Provides technical expertise and leadership in executing operational procedures including patching, firmware upgrades, monitoring, capacity planning, and maintenance routines. Delivers improvement recommendations and operational status reporting to specialists, users, and management.
• Monitoring, Analytics & Continuous Improvement — Develops and enhances network monitoring capabilities, dashboards, alerts, runbooks, and performance reporting. Identifies efficiency and quality improvements related to incident response, automation, lifecycle management, and operational workflows.
• Lifecycle Management — Supports network lifecycle activities including capacity planning, EOL/EOS validation, hardware and software refresh, and vendor roadmap alignment. Coordinates with Architecture and Engineering to ensure smooth introduction of new technologies into the operational environment.
• Vendor & MSP Coordination — Collaborates with carriers, service providers, and…