United Airlines are hiring a Senior Manager, Application Development

Description

There’s never been a more exciting time to join United Airlines. We’re on a path towards becoming the best airline in the history of aviation. Our shared purpose – Connecting People, Uniting the World – is about more than getting people from one place to another. It also means that as a global company that operates in hundreds of locations around the world with millions of customers and tens of thousands of employees, we have a unique responsibility to uplift and provide opportunities in the places where we work, live and fly, and we can only do that with a truly diverse and inclusive workforce. And we’re growing – in the years ahead, we’ll hire tens of thousands of people across every area of the airline. Our careers include a competitive benefits package aimed at keeping you happy, healthy and well-traveled. From employee-run "Business Resource Group" communities to world-class benefits like parental leave, 401k and privileges like space available travel, United is truly a one-of-a-kind place to work. Are you ready to travel the world?

We believe that inclusion propels innovation and is the foundation of all that we do. United's Digital Technology team spans the globe and is made up of diverse 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.

Please note this role is hybrid based in Chicago, IL and will require in office attendance 2-3 days per week. 

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Manager – IT Application Development will lead the engineering organization responsible for critical customer service technology platforms and applications, including Navigator, United’s strategic reservations support platform supporting thousands of frontline employees across our Customer Support operation. This leader will have the opportunity to shape the next generation of technology used by our employees to serve millions of customers, combining strong engineering leadership with technology strategy, modernization, and execution at enterprise scale.

This is a highly visible leadership role with the opportunity to influence platform and architecture strategy, modernize critical applications, and build high-performing engineering teams while partnering closely with business, product, architecture, and technology leaders.

Technology & Delivery Leadership

• Lead the continued evolution and modernization of Navigator, shaping the technology roadmap and engineering strategy for a critical platform that enables frontline employees to efficiently serve United’s customers.
• Own the technology strategy, engineering roadmap, and end-to-end delivery for assigned customer service platforms and applications, ensuring alignment with business priorities and enterprise technology standards.
• Lead the design, modernization, development, integration, and operational readiness of scalable technology solutions supporting customer and employee experiences.
• Drive predictable execution across multiple concurrent initiatives, with accountability for scope, schedule, budget, quality, risks, dependencies, and business outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership and direction across solution architecture, application design, integration patterns, cloud adoption, engineering standards, security, resiliency, performance, and maintainability.
• Establish and continuously improve engineering practices across Agile delivery, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, code quality, and production readiness.
• Partner with Product, Business, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, and other technology teams to translate business priorities into executable technology roadmaps and solutions.
• Ensure platforms meet high standards for availability, performance, scalability, security, and operational excellence while proactively addressing technical risk and modernization opportunities.
• Drive continuous improvement across engineering delivery, application performance, technical debt, reliability, and operational efficiency.

Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of technology professionals, creating clear accountability while building technical and leadership capabilities across the organization.
• Establish organizational and individual goals aligned with business outcomes, technology strategy, and United’s priorities.
• Build an effective engineering organization through talent development, workforce planning, performance management, and appropriate use of internal and partner resources.
• Create an environment that encourages engineering excellence, innovation, collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Communicate technology strategy, delivery progress, risks, investment needs, and trade-offs effectively with senior business and technology leaders.
• Influence across organizational boundaries and build strong partnerships to drive decisions and successful delivery of complex, cross-functional initiatives.

Qualifications

Qualifications – Minimum

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 5+ years of progressive technology experience delivering and operating enterprise-scale applications, including 4+ years of leadership experience managing engineering teams and/or large cross-functional technology programs.
• Strong technical understanding of modern web application architectures and technologies, including Angular, TypeScript, .NET, RESTful APIs, reusable component-based architectures, and responsive web applications, with the ability to provide technical direction and effectively challenge architecture and engineering decisions.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud and distributed application architectures, including AWS and/or GCP, serverless technologies, containers and Kubernetes, microservices, API gateways, web services, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering and operational practices, including Agile SDLC, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, application performance management and observability tools such as Dynatrace or Datadog, resiliency, performance engineering, and production reliability.
• Demonstrated experience developing technology roadmaps, driving architecture and engineering standards, and modernizing enterprise applications at scale.
• Experience leading multiple concurrent initiatives and driving delivery across internal engineering teams, vendors, and cross-functional partners.
• Strong business acumen with demonstrated ability to translate business objectives into technology strategy, priorities, and executable delivery plans.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, communicate complex technology decisions clearly, and manage competing priorities and organizational dependencies.
• Strong people leadership experience, including coaching, talent development, performance management, and building high-performing engineering teams.
• Excellent executive communication and presentation skills.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship.
• Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Experience supporting large-scale customer service, airline, contact center, or other high-volume customer-facing technology environments.
• Experience modernizing legacy applications and migrating workloads toward cloud-native, API-driven, and component-based architectures.
• Experience leading technology organizations responsible for business-critical, highly available production platforms.
• Agile, SAFe, cloud, architecture, or related technology certifications.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative AI tools and effectively leverages them for research, analysis, content creation, and problem-solving. Applies critical thinking to validate AI-generated outputs while adhering to company policies related to responsible AI use, data privacy, and security.