IT Principal Architect

Ulta Beauty, Inc. • Bolingbrook, IL

6h • Hybrid

About The Position

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 Principal AI Solution Architect is a high-impact technical leader responsible for the strategic oversight and architectural integrity of the Enterprise AI portfolio. Operating at the intersection of "wow" guest experiences and industrial-grade engineering, this role leads the design and scaling of innovative solutions that understand and engage our guests through differentiated, relevant, and personalized interactions. Within the Enterprise AI team, you will provide vision and thought leadership in the areas of AI, Machine Learning, Data Mining, and NLP to solve complex "blank page" problems in a fast-paced, startup-like environment. As a key leader, you will oversee a specialized team of architects (Solution, Platform, and MLOps) and enable the technical delivery for 4–5 delivery pods. This role is inherently collaborative, coordinating closely with Enterprise Architecture and other IT teams to align cutting-edge innovation with corporate standards. The ideal candidate is a visionary technical leader who can navigate the complexities of generative AI orchestration, autonomous agent architectures, and industrial-grade ML operations.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in software engineering and systems architecture, with at least 5+ years specifically focused on leading large-scale AIML production environments.
• Experience managing other architects or technical leads (Data Scientists) and overseeing multiple simultaneous workstreams/pods.
• Deep expertise in the modern AI stack, including LLM orchestration (LangChain, LlamaIndex), vector databases (Pinecone, Milvus), and traditional ML frameworks (TensorFlow, Scikit-Learn).
• Hands-on experience designing agentic systems, autonomous workflows, or cognitive architectures
• Strong understanding of Platform Architecture and MLOps, including Kubernetes, model serving (BentoML, TGI, vLLM), and automated retraining pipelines.
• Experience, working with and influencing, Enterprise Architecture frameworks and navigating complex governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) environments.
• Hands-on experience with cloud computing platforms (Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS)
• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or a related field is preferred; equivalent professional experience is required.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to create clear architectural diagrams and whitepapers for both technical and non-technical audiences. Comfort and experience presenting and compiling materials for Executive audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience with retail industry is preferred

Responsibilities

• Portfolio Governance: Oversee the architectural design and delivery of AIML and Agentic solutions across multiple delivery pods, ensuring technical consistency and alignment with business objectives.
• Team Leadership: Manage and mentor a high-performing team of Solution Architects, Platform Architects, and MLOps Architects, defining their performance standards and professional growth paths. Define and drive Architecture team and tech SME blueprint and resource strategy.
• Enterprise Coordination: Act as a key liaison to the Enterprise Architecture (EA) team to ensure AI initiatives comply with corporate infrastructure, security, and data governance standards while influencing the evolution of those standards. Define and align on operating model between the two groups.
• Agentic Framework Design: Lead the design and implementation of agentic workflows and autonomous systems, focusing on multi-agent orchestration, tool-use integration, and robust feedback loops.
• Architectural Guardrails: Establish and enforce standards for model selection (LLMs vs. SLMs), RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) patterns, and agentic reasoning paths to optimize for cost, latency, and accuracy.
• Strategic Roadmapping: Define the 12–24 month technical roadmap for the AI delivery organization, identifying emerging technologies and determining when to "build, buy, or partner."
• Resource & Capacity Planning: Coordinate with product owners and pod leads to balance architectural resources across priority areas, ensuring high-velocity delivery without accumulating technical debt.
• Risk Mitigation: Address complex challenges related to AI ethics, bias, hallucination management, and data privacy across all portfolio projects.
• Stakeholder Influence: Communicate complex architectural trade-offs to executive senior leadership, translating technical milestones into business value and ROI.
• Mentor: Mentor internal team members and cross functional collaborators team members in the use of AI / ML / NLP methodologies and techniques.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal