Sr Manager - IT Airport Operations Customer Experience id-9949

May 31, 2025

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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.

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.

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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 application

Qualifications

What’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 position

What 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

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