Managing Director – Technical Operations Planning

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Description

At United, we have some of the best aircraft in the world. Our Technical Operations team is full of aircraft maintenance technicians, engineers, planners, ground equipment and facilities professionals, and supply chain teams that help make sure they’re well taken care of and ready to get our customers to their desired destinations. If you’re ready to work on our planes, join our Tech Ops experts and help keep our fleet in tip-top shape.

Job Overview and Responsibilities

Technical Operations maintains more than 1,000 aircraft to deliver the network schedule of the world’s largest airline. The Managing Director – Technical Operations Planning leads the development and integration of the maintenance plan and strategy across Technical Operations. This includes line maintenance strategy and planning; leadership of or partnership in elements of base maintenance strategy, long-term hangar planning and capacity alignment; tactical daily decision-making; and planning Engineering Authorizations and fleet projects, including airworthiness directives, modifications and inspections, all while maintaining maintenance program and FAA regulatory compliance.

Reporting to the VP – Tech Ops Planning & OSV, this role is accountable for a portfolio of work centered around the core objective of maximizing aircraft availability and minimizing downtime. The role leads or partners in establishing the multi-year maintenance capacity strategy as the fleet grows and its mix changes and ensures that long-term hangar and base maintenance plans are incorporated into an integrated Technical Operations plan. Working closely with the leaders accountable for those areas and with other key Airline Planning stakeholders, both inside Technical Operations and across other divisions, the role leads the sequencing and resource tradeoffs needed to optimize maintenance requirements, balance schedule needs, and support enterprise growth.

The Managing Director partners with leaders in the Planning & OSV business function, Network Planning, the NOC and Maintenance Control, Line and Base Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain, Airframe Vendor Management, Finance and Digital Technology. The role provides leadership for the planning organization’s operating model within its assigned scope, including its standards, tools, analytics and the measurements used to determine whether changes improve the operation. The role also promotes alignment and consistent planning practices across adjacent organizations. The role is Chicago-based, with regular NOC presence and approximately 20% travel.

• Maintenance Network Strategy & Planning:
  • Leads the integrated development and continued evolution and optimization of the maintenance footprint and associated labor requirements, in partnership with Network Planning, Resource Planning, Line and Base Maintenance, and the leaders accountable for the underlying planning and execution functions, considering fleet growth and mix over a 10–15-year horizon.
  • Owns the integration of these inputs into the broader Technical Operations planning strategy and, within the role’s assigned scope, directly leads or influences the resulting plans and decisions.
  • Also owns Technical Operations’ input to, and criteria for, network schedule development, including minimum maintenance requirements, aircraft access and touch time, spares, schedule quality indicators and maintenance allocations, serving as the advocate for the aircraft with Network Planning and the NOC.
• Leadership & Talent Planning:
  • Leads through Directors and senior leaders, setting expectations for safety, execution discipline, cross-functional collaboration and accountability; ensures team size, organization and function meet the evolving needs of United Tech Ops; owns succession, bench strength and critical-role coverage and develops the Directors and Senior Managers who will lead the function; sponsors the strategic schedule reviews across Tech Ops; represents Technical Operations Planning in senior and executive forums with mature executive presence.
• Line Maintenance Planning:
  • Accountable for the NOC Line and Field Planning teams in scheduling routine, non-routine and deferred (MEL, DIP, NEF) maintenance work, special visits, out-of-service aircraft within maintenance program limits and station capabilities and constraints, ensuring work plans have labor, materials and tooling in place to accomplish planned events.
• Integration with Long-Term Hangar Planning:
  • Leads or partners in the development, alignment and integration of the long-term hangar plan across airframe maintenance and related projects.
  • Works with the leaders accountable for Base Maintenance Planning to align base track capacity needs and ATS allocations in an integrated, comprehensive way that is coordinated across the Tech Ops Planning ribbon; Ensures that long-term hangar plans and visit requirements are synthesized with the line maintenance plans to maximize aircraft availability and minimize downtime.
• Engineering Authorizations & Fleet Projects:
  • Owns the EA process lifecycle and execution of the fleet project portfolio – airworthiness directives, modifications and inspections – including ATS allocations, execution rates against agreed timelines and budgets, and corrective action when programs fall behind.
  • Holds business case and funding approval for the portfolio; ensures delivery on time, within budget and in full regulatory compliance.
• Continuous Improvement, Tools & Analytics:
  • Instills continuous improvement across line, hangar, project and strategy planning processes to simplify, standardize and drive accountability; sets the KPIs and scorecards the organization runs on; partners with Digital Technology and Standards & Operational Excellence on next-generation planning, decision-modeling and reporting platforms.
  • Baselines before anything is built, tracks results after deployment, and stops what is not delivering.
  • Evaluates every analytics- or AI-enabled proposal on its baseline, the cost of its wrong recommendations and its failure modes before it reaches the operation.

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree
• Engineering, Aviation Management or Technology, Operations Management, Business, Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Economics, or related field
• 10+ years in aircraft maintenance planning, engineering, strategy, network or operational planning, or airline/MRO operations in a Part 121 environment
• 7+ years leading teams, including leaders of leaders, across multiple sites
• Partnered with network or schedule planning functions and presented tradeoffs to executives
• Deep knowledge of maintenance program requirements, 14 CFR Part 121, MEL management, aircraft routing and network planning, and MRO operations
• Executive presence: influences across Tech Ops, Network Planning, the NOC, Finance and Digital Technology; communicates risk and tradeoffs to senior leadership
• Financial and analytical acumen: builds and interrogates business cases, decision models and capacity forecasts
• Strategic thinker with the agility to make tactical decisions on short notice; operates with little supervision in a highly visible role
• 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
• 20% travel required

What will help you propel from the pack (Preferred Qualifications):

• Master’s degree or MBA
• Engineering, Aviation Management or Business Administration
• FAA Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) certificate; Lean Six Sigma or equivalent
• Network Planning, schedule design, Tech Ops planning or aircraft routing at a major global airline with multiple fleet types and hubs
• Exposure to NOC and Maintenance Control operations
• Led the development, integration or execution of a multi-year maintenance, hangar or capacity plan with measurable operational and financial results
• Successfully led a transformation or a major planning-tool deployment
• Prior experience leading at the Managing Director (or equivalent) level, preferably at a large industrial corporation
• Knowledge of United’s GMM and Maintenance Program
• Maintenance planning and scheduling systems; decision-modeling or optimization tools
• Change leadership in a multi-site, represented workforce.
• Understands the capabilities and limitations of analytics and generative AI tools and applies critical judgment to validate their outputs before they inform operational decisions, consistent with United’s responsible-AI, data privacy and security policies.

The base pay range for this role is $201,400.00 to $262,250.00.
The base salary range/hourly rate listed is dependent on job-related, 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. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact JobAccommodations@united.com