Intro

Are you ready to explore a world of possibilities, both at work and during your time off? Join our American Airlines family, and you’ll travel the world, grow your expertise and become the best version of you. As you embark on a new journey, you’ll tackle challenges with flexibility and grace, learning new skills and advancing your career while having the time of your life. Feel free to enrich both your personal and work life and hop on board!

All you'll need for success continued

Why you'll love this job

As a member of the Chief Technology (CTO) organization within Information Technology, the Director of Platform Engineering and AI will be instrumental in driving the strategic vision and technical direction for both American’s core technical platforms and the AI organization. You will inspire and grow platform engineering competency within the Technology organization and partner across enterprise organizations to build the future of American Airlines technology. In addition, you will work on pioneering projects that harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve complex problems and create significant business value. Our innovative and collaborative environment encourages creativity, continuous learning, and professional growth. You'll have the opportunity to work with a diverse team of experts, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to build scalable and impactful AI solutions. Your contributions will play a crucial role in shaping the future of our engineering capabilities and driving the success of our organization.

What you'll do

• Responsibilities of this role include the following:

• Manage platform engineering teams, unlocking enablement by defining and building core, reusable services.

• Champion the enterprise platforms delivery and roadmap

• Actively engage in implementing platform capabilities to enable delivery teams, modernize patterns and development lifecycles

• Partner with cross-functional teams to evolve capabilities and facilitate practical automation solutions that can be consumed in a self-service manner.

• Evolve and maintain our core platforms technology stack with focus on ensuring all systems run on supported technologies/platforms.

• Lead optimization of integrations connecting and harmonizing the various services and experiences across the ecosystem.

• Oversee the design and management of platform APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), ensuring consistency, security, and efficiency in data exchange.

• Develop and execute a strategic vision for integrating Generative AI (Gen AI) into enterprise-level products or services.

• Lead a team of data engineers, ML engineers, data scientists, and software engineers to design, develop, and maintain scalable AI platforms and infrastructure, and implement Gen AI models into production.

• Lead the evaluation and selection of Gen AI technologies, frameworks, and tools to ensure optimal performance and scalability.

• Develop and enforce best practices for Gen AI development, deployment, and platform engineering.

• Present Gen AI strategies, architectures, and results to executive leadership and other stakeholders.

• Ensure compliance with data privacy and security standards in all Gen AI initiatives.

• Stay updated on the latest trends, tools, and techniques in Gen AI.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to Gen AI and engineering teams, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.

• Promote the American Airlines five leadership attributes:

• Caring – We care about all team members

• Collaboration – We succeed as a team

• Development – We build future leaders

• Results – We drive to be the best

• Future – We continually challenge the status quo

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related field

• 5-8 years of leadership experience, including experience leading other technical leaders and team members

• 5-8 years of experience in leading Agile, DevOps and security practices to manage technology delivery

• 5-8 years of experience leading AI/ML teams, managing large-scale AI solutions, with a focus on natural language processing (NLP) techniques

• 5-8 years of experience collaborating with cross-functional architecture groups

• Strong understanding of cloud computing principles, including infrastructure for AI, microservices architecture, and micro models.

• Strong knowledge of AI architecture, cloud computing, and scalable AI infrastructure (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, including executives and board members.

• Demonstrated experience working with cross-functional teams (e.g., engineering, product management, legal, ethics, data science) to deliver AI and/or platform engineering solutions.

Preferred Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Advanced degree (Masters, Ph.D.) in Data Science, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related field

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, or Java.

• 2 years of experience working with Generative AI foundation models (e.g., GPT, Llama, Gemini)

• Demonstrated experience managing large, complex projects, including budgeting, timelines, and resource allocation

• Experience with AI-specific platform technologies (e.g., NVIDIA GPU Cloud, Lambda Labs, or other AI-optimized infrastructure).

• Experience developing and integrating APIs to support AI model access and deployment across applications.

• Proficiency with microservices architecture for scalable and modular AI services.

• Knowledge of infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) for automating and scaling environments.

• Familiarity with continuous monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack) to ensure AI platform reliability.

• Proven ability to build and facilitate relationships at all levels of the organization, as well as manage relationships with 3rd party providers and partners.

All you'll need for success continued

Skills, Licenses & Certifications

• Ability to drive for results with an aptitude for engaging employees collaboratively across multiple workgroups

• Ability to think strategically and use sound judgment in making decisions

• Ability to concurrently handle multiple responsibilities while working with others

• Excellent analytical, problem solving, and organizational skills

• Strong understanding of software development principles and practices.

• Strong experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).

• Knowledge of version control systems (e.g., Git).

• Strong experience with AI/ML frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Keras

• Commitment to staying updated with the latest technology trends

• Attention to detail and a commitment to producing high-quality work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible).

What you'll get

Feel free to take advantage of all that American Airlines has to offer:

• Travel Perks: Ready to explore the world? You, your family and your friends can reach 365 destinations on more than 6,800 daily flights across our global network.

• Health Benefits: On day one, you’ll have access to your health, dental, prescription and vision benefits to help you stay well. And that’s just the start, we also offer virtual doctor visits, flexible spending accounts and more.

• Wellness Programs: We want you to be the best version of yourself – that’s why our wellness programs provide you with all the right tools, resources and support you need.

• 401(k) Program: Available upon hire and, depending on the workgroup, employer contributions to your 401(k) program are available after one year.

• Additional Benefits: Other great benefits include our Employee Assistance Program, pet insurance and discounts on hotels, cars, cruises and more

Feel free to be yourself at American

From the team members we hire to the customers we serve, inclusion and diversity are the foundation of the dynamic workforce at American Airlines. Our 20+ Employee Business Resource Groups are focused on connecting our team members to our customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders, helping team members reach their full potential and creating an inclusive work environment to meet and exceed the needs of our diverse world.

Are you ready to feel a tremendous sense of pride and satisfaction as you do your part to keep the largest airline in the world running smoothly as we care for people on life’s journey? Feel free to be yourself at American.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY/ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY

American Airlines maintains a continuing policy of nondiscrimination in employment. It is our policy to provide equal opportunity and access for all persons, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or other protected veteran, in all phases of the employment process and in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This policy of nondiscrimination shall include, but not be limited to, the following employment decisions and practices: hiring; upgrading; promotions; demotions or transfers; layoffs; recalls; terminations; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; selection for training, including apprenticeship; and recruitment or recruitment advertising.