Engineer - Vulnerability Management

Ulta Beauty; Bolingbrook (IL); On-site; USD 91,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Ulta Beauty in Bolingbrook, IL seeks an Engineer - Vulnerability Management to design, implement, and maintain a robust vulnerability program across hybrid environments. You will deploy authenticated scans, drive risk-based prioritization, and coordinate remediation with Infra/Platform, Cloud, and App teams.

The role emphasizes data-driven remediation, collaboration with Security Operations, and governance across scanning, metrics, and audits.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, CIS, or equivalent experience (5+ years in cybersecurity).
• 5+ years in cybersecurity with relevant certifications preferred (CISSP or equivalent).
• Experience with risk-based prioritization, vulnerability management, and security operations.

Responsibilities

• Design, schedule, and optimize authenticated scans for on-prem, cloud, and remote endpoints.
• Prioritize findings using context: EPSS, KEV, network exposure, business impact, and asset criticality.
• Drive remediation by partnering with Infra/Platform, Cloud, and App teams.
• Integrate with ServiceNow VR for ticketing and validation of fixes.
• Assist Security Operations with zero-day/rapid-response playbooks and risk assessments.
• Publish dashboards and reports showing risk trends and SLA adherence.

Skills

Vulnerability management

Vulnerability scanning

Risk prioritization

Threat intelligence

Incident response

CMDB integration

Automation scripting

SIEM/EDR/XDR

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/CIS or equivalent

Tools

Qualys

Tenable

Rapid7

Falcon Exposure Management

ServiceNow VR

Job description

Overview

Live the

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 Engineer - Vulnerability Management is responsible for working with the VM Manager to design, implement, and maintain a robust vulnerability management program across hybrid environments, including on-premises, cloud, containers, and SaaS platforms. This role focuses on technical execution—deploying and tuning scanning tools (Tenable Security Center/Falcon Exposure Management), then using continuous, data driven communication to remediation teams via ServiceNow VR so that they are empowered to address the riskiest vulnerabilities within their environments. The engineer will leverage risk-based prioritization, threat intelligence, and business context to reduce exposure and improve resilience.

YOU'LL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS BY:

• Vulnerability Identification & Scanning
  • Design, schedule, and optimize authenticated/credentialed scans for on‑prem, cloud, and remote endpoints; ensure minimal disruption and scan hygiene
  • Validate scanner configuration and coverage (e.g., Qualys/Tenable/Rapid7/Falcon Exposure Management) and continuously tune for false‑positive reduction
• Risk-Based Prioritization
  • Prioritize findings using context: exploit likelihood (EPSS), Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (CISA KEV), network exposure, business impact, compensating controls, and asset criticality
  • Correlate with threat intel and active detections (EDR/XDR/SIEM), elevating actively exploited vulnerabilities to emergency treatment
  • Define severity thresholds and SLAs per asset class; manage exceptions with time‑bound risk acceptance and compensating controls.
• Remediation & Ticketing
  • Drive remediation by regularly partnering with Infra/Platform, Cloud, and App teams to empower them to make informed decisions when weighing the priority of patches and configuration changes versus compensating controls and operational realities
  • Integrate with ticketing systems (ServiceNow VR) to ensure that proper assignment logic is in place, and that automated validation scans determine the status of fix actions.
  • Assist the Security Operations team as they execute zero‑day/rapid-response playbooks (e.g. scans/queries, exploitability assessments, validations, enrich post‑mortems)
• Asset & Exposure Discovery
  • Contribute to and help maintain an accurate, continuously updated asset inventory across a primary scope of endpoints, servers, and network devices, as well as containers, mobile, OT/IoT, and cloud resources (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
  • Integrate data from CMDB, cloud provider APIs, EDR/XDR, MDM, and attack surface management to reduce blind spots
  • Assist CMDB owner with categorization of assets for business criticality, data sensitivity, internet‑exposure, and ownership to enable risk-based prioritization
• Validation & Continuous Improvement
  • Perform targeted rescans and exploit‑simulation where safe to confirm remediation
  • Tune detection rules to reduce noise; establish a feedback loop with platform owners for recurring findings
  • Run root cause analyses for chronic issues (missing patch baselines, unsupported OS, inadequate maintenance windows)
• Governance, Metrics & Reporting
  • Publish actionable dashboards and reports: weighted risk trends, criticality & exposure trends, SLA adherence, risky asset highlighting, KEV coverage, etc
  • Align with risk and audit frameworks (NIST CSF/800‑53, CIS Controls, ISO 27001, SOC 2) and support audit evidence requests
  • Maintain policy/standards for scanning coverage, remediation SLAs, and risk acceptances.
• Cloud, Containers, and DevSecOps Integration
  • Work with teams utilizing existing scanning in their CI/CD pipelines and enforce policy gates for images, IaC, and dependencies
  • Partner with cloud engineering to communicate misconfigurations (CSPM/CNAPP) and high‑risk services (public S3, exposed admin ports, overly permissive IAM)
  • Champion SBOM generation and consumption; track vulnerable components (e.g., Log4j) across apps, images, and functions
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
  • Act as the primary point of contact with Infra/Platform, Cloud, AppSec, Networking, and Business Owners for remediation prioritization
  • Communicate risk in business terms; elevate blockers; provide clear, concise guidance
• Automation & Tooling
  • Build automation for asset enrichment, ticket creation, SLA tracking, and report generation (APIs, scripts, workflows)
  • Evaluate and pilot emerging capabilities (exposure management, ASM, CNAPP) and drive vendor/tool rationalization

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work across groups to identify opportunities for improvement within the environment, both technical and operational, along with plans to capture those benefits.
• Responsible for ensuring adherence to existing processes both operationally, and in support of PCI and/or SOX audit requirements.
• Collaborate with other members of the Engineering organization to create and maintain standards and operating procedures, and provide information as appropriate to manager, project manager, and various departments within the Company.

ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, CIS, or equivalent experience (5+ years in cybersecurity)
• Preferred Certifications – CISSP or equivalent
• 3-5 years professional experience in a relevant field
• Excellent analysis/troubleshooting skills, able to solve problems efficiently
• Excellent communication skills; feels comfortable working with non-technical business partners
• Skilled and comfortable with tackling complex challenges, either in leading the troubleshooting effort or advising/leading others
• Work with production support and project consultants in an onshore / offshore model
• Able to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
• Solid knowledge of industry best practices and technical systems
• Knowledgeable as to IT security concepts, compliance, principles, and tools
• Ability to work in team in diverse/ multiple stakeholder environments
• Ability to follow-up, follow through and deliver timely results
• Proven track record of delivering high quality solutions on time and on schedule
• Flexibility of providing support during odd hours, weekends, and peak seasons
• Off-Hours support including 24x7 on-call required
• Minimal travel required (training/conferences)
• Retail industry experience preferred

The pay range for this position is $90,800.00 - $120,000.00 / Year with the opportunity for eligible associates to earn additional compensation pursuant to the Company’s bonus plan. Exact pay will be based on factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, level, shift, geographic location, and business and organizational needs. 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. For additional information concerning our benefits, visit our Benefits and Career Development page: https://learn.bswift.com/ulta

About

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.