Director - IT Application Development, Airport Ops Technology

Description

United's Digital Technology team is comprised of many talented individuals all working together with cutting-edge technology to build the best airline in the history of aviation. Our team designs, develops and maintains massively scaling technology solutions brought to life with innovative architectures, data analytics, and digital solutions.

Job overview and responsibilities

• Strategy, vision, and stakeholder management:
  • Define and execute a multi-year technology roadmap aligned to Airport Operation’s strategic goals
  • Proactively identify and evaluate new strategic IT capabilities, including AI tools and processes, to enhance the delivery and performance of the programs
  • Shape the future of airport technology through emerging capabilities infused with telemetry & sensor data
  • Establish governance that balances speed, risk, and value delivery, ensuring alignment to enterprise architecture and security standards
  • Act as a strategic advisor to senior leadership, influencing investment decisions, prioritization, and long-range planning
  • Stay abreast of industry trends and introduce innovative technologies and partnerships that create competitive advantage
• Communication and Stakeholder management:
  • Serve as the point of accountability for Above the Wing technology delivery for Airport Operations leadership
  • Translate complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes, risks, and tradeoffs for executive audiences
  • Build deep partnerships with business, product, and cross-channel teams
  • Drive alignment across engineering, product, infrastructure, security, and vendor teams to ensure seamless execution at scale
  • Lead executive-level communications including roadmaps, performance metrics, incident reviews, and funding investments
• Strategic Project Delivery and technology management:
  • Lead delivery of complex, enterprise-scale programs ensuring on-time, on-budget, high-quality execution aligned to business outcomes
  • Own and evolve the software development lifecycle (SDLC) with a focus on AI-augmented development and embedding security into every stage
  • Compliance with TSA, PCI, and enterprise security standards
  • Establish best in class observability and reliability practices with full instrumentation and real-time analytics
  • Lead data-driven decision making, identifying and evaluating key metrics to drive program success criteria
  • Ensure system reliability and resilience with systems designed for high availability, fault tolerance, modern release strategies, and a goal of zero downtime
  • Lead cloud transformation initiatives leveraging AWS, microservices, and distributed architectures
  • Optimize delivery through agile and continuous improvement frameworks
  • Manage vendor partner ecosystem to ensure performance, accountability, and innovation
• Leadership:
  • Build, lead, and inspire high-performing teams across engineering, product, and delivery functions
  • Develop a next-generation workforce skilled in AI, cloud, automation, and modern engineering practices
  • Foster a culture of ownership and accountability, innovation and experimentation, continuous learning and improvement
  • Lead organizational design and workforce strategy to support scalability, speed, and evolving business needs
  • Balance operational excellence with innovation, ensuring teams can run the business while transforming it

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer science, Supply Chain or related field
• 8+ years of relevant experience
• 5+ years of management experience in an IT or leadership-related role
• Requires advanced technical and business knowledge in software development life cycle, quality assurance, project management, and other related disciplines/processes
• Experience with application development or product ownership
• Experience with Agile development
• Experience with cloud delivery
• Experience with REACT, HTML, JavaScript, .net, and document databases required
• In-depth understanding of application development processes, methodologies, and lifecycle management
• Strong program management / execution & delivery skills required
• Strong grasp of business operations and the ability to translate business needs into IT solutions
• Knowledge of financial principles to manage budgets, forecast costs, and deliver cost-effective solutions
• Experience with implementing Agile project delivery
• Ability to develop and present business cases to senior management and stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills to effectively liaise with technical teams and business leaders
• Ability to build strong relationships with internal and external partners, vendors, and service providers
• Collaboration skills to work across different departments and foster a team-oriented environment
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship
• Successful completion of interview required to meet job qualification
• Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position
• Master's degree preferred
• Experience in application development delivery of large scale projects/programs
• Experience using and applying Lean principles to improve IT operations
• Experience implementing IT solutions in the airline industry a plus
• Experience with cloud delivery

Pay and Benefits

• The base pay range for this role is $175,750.00 to $228,818.00.
• This position is also eligible for bonus and/or long-term incentive compensation awards.
• You may be eligible for the following competitive benefits: medical, dental, vision, life, accident & disability, parental leave, employee assistance program, commuter, paid holidays, paid time off, 401(k) and flight privileges.

About the Role

This role is Hybrid to Chicago or Houston.