Sr Manager - IT Airport Operations Customer Experience

Company: United Airlines
Location: Chicago
Posted on: May 21, 2025

Job Description:

Achieving our goals starts with supporting yours. Grow your career, access top-tier health and wellness benefits, build lasting connections with your team and our customers, and travel the world using our extensive route network.

Come join us to create what's next. Let's define tomorrow, together.

DescriptionUnited'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.The Senior Manager IT - Airport Operations Customer Experience will lead a team focused on defining, building and executing innovative customer experience applications. This role will be responsible for driving the development and implementation of bag drop hardware, bag drop software, biometric integrations, and AO process automation across various systems and applications.The individual will use groundbreaking technologies and enterprise grade integration software daily and will be relied upon to help take the team to the next level. This role demands a strong leader who can oversee budgets, deliverables, and development metrics and resource planning. This position will collaborate extensively with other areas across UA Digital Technology, Field Services Delivery, and Airport Operations.The ideal candidate will possess an analytic, innovative, and organizational background to enable strategic portfolio planning and management, including creating structure and mechanisms to track multiple initiatives and ensure prioritization discussions to ensure critical efforts are resourced and executed on time. As a leader, you will have exceptional leadership and communication skills and a deep understanding of driving organizational change, Agile development, and solutions architecture.The individual will experience a wide range of problem-solving situations, strategic to real-time, requiring data collection, analysis and reporting. Proactive planning will ensure top system reliability through the use of observability, core support, and collaborative DT operations.This position will have a strong focus on both implementing new enterprise technology needed to support the Customer Experience at United's global airports as well as partnering with enterprise teams to advance the technology ecosystem to support the new and existing applications. Travel may be required up to 30% to airport locations and AO offices to ensure the applications meet United's high standards of customer experience.

• Leadership and Team Management
  
  • Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning
  • Provide strategic direction and oversight to ensure the successful execution of programs, resource management, and day-to-day operations
  • Establish goals for the team and individuals, including performance reviews and career and performance plans
  • Plan for short and long-term resource needs (internally and externally) to ensure the right number of resources and skills are available to meet project goals and deadlines
  • Evaluate and suggest improvements to the organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities
  • Communication and Stakeholder Management
    
    • Engage, collaborate, and partner with technical and business stakeholders to understand business requirements and user expectations and lead the development of solutions that meet functional and technical requirements
    • Collaborate with United's business and IT leadership teams and product subject matter experts to establish the product's long-term vision, goals, and strategy
    • Develop multi-year product development strategies and tactical plans Share knowledge and work together to generate innovative solutions to problems
    • Align with business partners on delivery success criteria and ensure technology solutions follow architectural standards
    • Provide delivery estimates and business case updates to support overall IT performance metrics, monthly project status reporting, and quarterly resource planning review
    • Foster open communication within the IT team and across departments to ensure alignment and the successful delivery of cross-functional initiatives
    • Budgeting and Project Management
      
      • Develop and manage the program budget, ensuring efficient resource allocation to support strategic initiatives and operational needs
      • Track and report on key performance metrics, making data-driving decisions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the team
      • Ensure the project teams are successfully tracking timelines, budgets, risks, and resources to various stakeholders
      • Adjust or tailor the communication to fit the audience, up to executives or out to the field
      • Work closely with AO and CSI to provide proper change management and training documentation for effective use of new technology and quick adoption across locations
      • Create closed loop feedback to continuously improve
      • Strategic IT Planning and Execution
        
        • Evaluate, implement, and manage SaaS-based solutions and develop in-house cloud-based solutions
        • Identify technical obstacles early and collaborate closely with the team to find innovative solutions
        • Responsible for escalating, assisting, and following up on resolving issues related to the delivery of technology solutions
        • Ensure that Agile methodologies are implemented following best practices and that continuous improvements are made as needed
        • Also, ensure compliance with code scanning and other security protocols during development and release
        • Delivery/Support
          
          • Evaluate customer-facing platforms and integration tools based on business requirements, technical feasibility and cost effectiveness
          • Conduct assessments and recommend solutions to drive efficiencies and innovations
          • Actively staying informed about industry standards & trends, user feedback, and technological advancements to drive continuous improvement and innovation within the bag drop, biometrics, and process automation platforms
          • Incorporate responsible use of AI and data science to proactively shift customers and United's operation to digital automation
          • Significantly improve the integration of United's technology to airports on Common Use or United's proprietary hardware
          • Provide clear support processes to ensure reliable and secure operation of these solutions match the goals for the Tier of the applicationQualificationsWhat's needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):
            • Bachelor's degree
            • Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or other related field
            • 7+ years of relevant experience
            • Proven experience leading and developing IT teams, with a strong focus on leadership, mentorship, and team development
            • Experience implementing SaaS solutions or building applications using AWS cloud
            • Leadership experience managing multiple cross-functional teams or projects and influencing senior-level management and key stakeholders
            • Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively engage and influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
            • A mindset for continuous learning and staying updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices
            • Advanced technical and business knowledge in software development life cycle, quality assurance, project management, and other related disciplines/processes
            • Experience leading technology delivery of .NET and Cloud-based software using Agile development processes
            • 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 positionWhat will help you propel from the pack (Preferred Qualifications):
              • Master's degree
              • AWS Solutions Architect, Certified Customer Experience Professional, Project Management Professional, or similar
              • Understanding of system architecture principles, including the ability to design scalable and reliable solutions
              • Understanding of Common Use vendors, platforms, and hardware
              • Experience managing applications for customer-facing locations like airports, retail, theme parks, etc
              • Experience with observability software like Dynatrace, Data Dog, or Cloudwatch
              • Experience with Biometrics in alignment with TSA, CBP, or other state/local government programs and laws
              • Ability to translate existing business processes into fully automated or AI-assisted digital tools, including low-code/no-code platforms like Microsoft Power Apps
                The base pay range for this role is $137,275.00 to $187,000.00.
                The base salary range/hourly rate listed is dependent on job-related, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, education, and skills. 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.
                
                United Airlines is an equal opportunity employer. United Airlines recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, veteran status and other protected status as required by applicable law. Equal Opportunity Employer - Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/LGBT.
                
                We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions. Please contact to request accommodation.
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Keywords: United Airlines, Des Plaines , Sr Manager - IT Airport Operations Customer Experience, Executive , Chicago, Illinois