Sr Mgr - E&O Automation & AI

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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

The Manager of Automation & AI is responsible for leading the strategy, governance, development, and adoption of industry leading automation and Artificial Intelligence capabilities across the Engineering and Operations, and Digital Technology services. This role focuses on identifying, prioritizing, designing, implementing and measuring success of solutions that improve service reliability, operational efficiency, employee productivity, and customer outcomes.

The position serves as a key transformation leader, partnering with engineering, AI COE, operations, platform, service management, and business teams to create and execute an enterprise automation and AI roadmap. The role drives the adoption of modern technologies including workflow automation, orchestration, agentic AI, generative AI, self-healing operations, and intelligent service delivery capabilities.

This leader is accountable for building scalable delivery models, establishing governance standards, developing workforce capabilities, and ensuring that automation and AI investments generate measurable business value with the appropriate metrics. The role balances strategic planning with hands-on execution leadership to accelerate technology modernization and operational transformation initiatives

• Define and execute the Engineering and Operations Automation & AI implementation plan and strategy
• Develop and maintain a prioritized automation and AI roadmap aligned to organizational goals
• Establish governance processes, intake models, prioritization frameworks, and value realization methodologies
• Lead identification and evaluation of automation and AI opportunities across infrastructure, operations, engineering, service management, and platform teams
• Create executive-level metrics and reporting that demonstrate business value, efficiency gains, and operational improvements
• Partner with senior technology leaders to align investments and priorities
• Define standards, methodologies, reusable patterns, development practices, and guardrails
• Drive consistency across automation, workflow orchestration, agentic AI, generative AI, and intelligent operations initiatives across Engineering and Operations
• Create governance structures for use case intake, backlog management, delivery execution, and operational support
• Promote enterprise adoption through community engagement, communications, coaching, and best practice sharing
• Manage staffing models and capability development plans
• Lead matrixed teams responsible for development and deployment of automation and AI solutions
• Manage end-to-end lifecycle activities including ideation, design, development, testing, deployment, adoption, measurement, and continuous improvement
• Facilitate sprint planning, backlog prioritization, release management, and delivery reviews as appropriate
• Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, measurable, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards
• Partner with service owners and operational teams to identify manual, repetitive, and high-volume activities suitable for automation
• Drive implementation of self-service capabilities, workflow automation, intelligent ticket routing, predictive operations, and self-healing solutions
• Reduce operational toil and increase efficiency through automation-first practices
• Build Engineering and Operations organizational Automation & AI capabilities through training, coaching, and workforce enablement programs
• Partner with service owners, AI COE, and engineering teams to identify, prioritize, and implement high-value AI and automation opportunities
• Lead adoption of automation-first and AI-enabled ways of working across technology teams
• Develop talent pipelines, career paths, and skill development plans supporting future-state technology capabilities
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, collaboration, and accountability
• Develop business cases, funding strategies, and investment plans for Automation & AI initiatives for Engineering and Operations
• Manage budgets, resource allocations, vendor engagements, and financial forecasts supporting the Automation & AI portfolio
• Measure and communicate realized value through productivity gains, cost avoidance, capacity creation, and operational efficiency improvements
• Provide executive reporting and performance metrics to ensure investments align with strategic business outcomes

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration, Data Analytics, or related field
• 5+ years progressive technology leadership experience
• 3+ years leading automation, AI, platform engineering, operational excellence, or transformation initiatives
• Ability to manage and coordinate all aspects of department operation including tactical & strategic planning, budgeting, staffing, resource allocation, coaching, mentoring, providing direction, delivering reviews, setting objectives, etc
• Ability to directly manage one or more department cost centers
• Ability to manage capital and operational budgets for department/projects including forecasting needs, appropriation requests, tracking costs, investigating variances, making corrections, etc
• Strong subject matter expertise in the fields of IT automation and AI

• Expert knowledge of IT infrastructure best practices, procedures and standards

• Prior IT infrastructure leadership experience
• Project management skills
• Working knowledge and/or hands on experience with as many as possible of the following areas:
• Leadership experience and the ability to guide and inspire a team

• A mindset for continuous learning and staying updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices

• Experience in common architecture frameworks such as Microservices, API management
• Experience in Robotic Process automation
• Experience in designing and building applications using AWS (or other hyperscalers) cloud architecture & services and support of highly available and resilient multi-region platforms
• 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

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

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration, Data Analytics, or related field
• 8+ years progressive technology leadership experience
• A proven track record managing departmental teams in large, multi-platform mission critical IT environments that are complex, diverse and fast paced

The base pay range for this role is $140,600.00 to $183,108.00.
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