Director, Customer AI Automation

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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

This Director – Customer AI Automation role will be responsible for establishing and leading United's Retail AI capabilities that transform the customer experience across all channels, with an immediate focus on voice and chat automation. This leader will oversee the strategy, roadmap, delivery, budget, and operational metrics of United's Retail AI Automation, including voice automation, and agentic workflows.

Our approach to automation will address real operational challenges -- for example, sharp spikes in customer contacts during large-scale irregular operations that can lead to extremely long wait times for customers and significant additional hours for our frontline teams –- while enabling our frontline experts to focus on the complex, high-value moments where their judgment, empathy and problem solving skills make the greatest difference.

• Develop and execute a multi-year Retail AI strategy with a strong emphasis on voice automation that aligns with United's customer experience goals, commercial vision, and operational resilience objectives
• Stay abreast of business strategy, goals, objectives, and operational performance across retail, digital, customer experience, and customer support domains
• Understand and provide recommendations for improvement of customer experience processes by applying AI capabilities, identifying improvements to existing systems, and defining new strategic AI capabilities that scale with demand
• Design and deploy AI systems that deliver fast, effortless resolutions and eliminate extremely long wait times, particularly during peak demand periods
• Guide teams in designing, building, testing, and deploying AI agents, interfaces, voice automation solutions, and personalization capabilities
• Partner closely with Customer Support leadership to ensure AI automation complements and enhance agent capabilities, freeing agents to focus on high-value, complex customer interactions
• Establish and maintain strong business relationships with both senior and operating level business leaders to ensure effective delivery of business deliverables and AI technology solutions
• Educate business partners on AI capabilities, roles, responsibilities, processes, and work required to ensure effective delivery of new AI solutions, particularly voice automation
• Communicate strategy, goals, and measurable components to drive success and accountability across the organization, emphasizing customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and agent empowerment
• Act as the point of contact and facilitate the work request demand and prioritization process for AI initiatives, balancing innovation with operational stability
• Oversee and lead projects to ensure delivery of work requests and projects are within committed budget, on schedule, and the quality of individual projects meets the overall department performance goals
• Advance, assist, and follow through on the resolution of issues related to the delivery of AI-powered solutions
• Provide cost estimates, business case updates, and ROI analysis for AI initiatives, demonstrating impact on customer satisfaction, operational cost savings, and service scalability
• Identify needs, secure commitments and monitor progress of tasks from internal and external service provider teams, including AI technology vendors and voice platform providers
• Align with business partners on delivery success criteria and ensure AI solutions follow architectural standards, security protocols, and responsible AI principles
• Successfully integrate AI initiatives with other software applications in United's technology ecosystem
• Ensure adherence to code scanning, security protocols, and AI governance standards during releases
• Oversee the Retail AI engineering team and establish operational excellence, fostering a culture that values both technological innovation and human-centered service design
• Remain informed of new AI technologies, voice automation frameworks, and best practices and incorporate those technologies to improve the productivity of the AI engineering team

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field
• 8+ years of relevant experience in Technology, or customer experience systems
• 5+ years of management experience in an IT, or leadership related role
• Strong project organization skills, including prioritization, planning and organization
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Strong AI industry trends and industry knowledge, particularly in voice automation
• Experience in management of remote teams across multiple locations, including offshore and third-party service providers
• Prior experience in AI/ML platform development and deployment at scale
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), modern software development practices, and Agile methodologies
• Experience building AI, chatbots, or voice automation solutions
• 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

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree
• 3+ years of experience building Generative AI and AI platforms, with specific experience in voice automation
• Relevant experience in Technology, machine learning
• Prior experience with LangChain, LangGraph, or similar agent development frameworks
• Experience leading customer service technology delivery with deep knowledge of AI, voice automation tools, and IVR systems
• Experience designing AI solutions that integrate with contact center platforms and telephony systems
• 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.
• Experience with A/B testing, experimentation frameworks, and AI model evaluation methodologies
• Knowledge of responsible AI principles, AI governance, and bias mitigation strategies
• Experience in travel, retail, or e-commerce industry is a significant plus
• Familiarity with United's technology stack and SDLC tools
• Understanding of contact center operations, workforce management, and customer service metrics

The base pay range for this role is $175,750.00 to $228,818.00.

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 View email address on click.appcast.io