Principal Engineer, IT Software

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!

Why you'll love this job

• As one diverse, high-performing team dedicated to technical excellence, you will focus relentlessly on delivering unrivaled digital products that drive a more reliable and profitable airline.
• The Software domain refers to the area within Information Technology that focuses on the development, deployment, management, and maintenance of software applications that support business processes and user needs. This includes development, application lifecycle management, requirement analysis, QA, security & compliance, and maintaining the applications and infrastructure.
• As a Principal Engineer supporting the Next Generation Operations Platform, you will serve as a technical and domain expert for Flight Movement functionality, helping modernize how American plans, executes, and adapts the daily operation. You’ll combine deep flight operations knowledge with engineering excellence to deliver scalable, reliable solutions for one of the most critical areas of the airline.
• You will act as a recognized Flight Movement expert within the Next Generation Operations Platform, influencing how operational flight data is modeled, processed, and consumed across the airline.
• You’ll work at the intersection of flight operations domain knowledge and modern software engineering, helping transition critical capabilities to a more flexible, extensible platform.

What you'll do

As noted above, this list is intended to reflect the current job but there may be additional essential functions (and certainly non-essential job functions) that are not referenced.  Management will modify the job or require other tasks be performed whenever it is deemed appropriate to do so, observing, of course, any legal obligations including any collective bargaining obligations.

• Serve as the Flight Movement subject matter expert from an IT perspective, shaping how flights, movement events, status changes, and operational updates are defined and implemented within the platform.
• Design, develop, and evolve platform-level services and APIs that support flight execution, schedule changes, delays, cancellations, diversions, and recovery scenarios.
• Translate flight operations concepts and workflows into clear system models, data structures, and integration patterns.
• Partner with Flight Operations, Operations Control, Crew, Maintenance, Airports, Security,  Network and other stakeholders to ensure the platform meets current and future operational needs.
• Writes, tests, and documents technical work products (e.g., code, scripts, processes) according to organizational standards and practices 
• Designs thoughtfully integrated systems that model organizational best practices, allowing disparate teams across product domains to deliver value with speed, scale, and reliability
• Consistently anticipates scaling, latency, and durability challenges and guides teams in implementation of mitigating strategies
• Thoughtfully evaluates technical risks and guides toward practical prevention strategies
• Consistently reflects on squad delivery practices throughout their span of of influence, recommends improvements to leadership and drives their implementation
• Maintains a focus on removing the duplication of effort across teams and proactively identifies opportunities for reuse within their span of influence
• Thoughtfully measures and assesses team and identifies areas of development for individuals
• Explores emerging technologies, leads development of prototypes with little or no guidance and incorporates into architectural solutions where appropriate

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications – Education & Prior Job Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology, Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training
• 9+ years of experience designing, developing, and implementing large-scale solutions in production environments

Preferred Qualifications – Education & Prior Job Experience  

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology, Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training
• Airline Industry experience

Skills, Licenses, and Certifications

• Proficiency with the following technologies:
  • IBM Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) in a z/TPF environment
  • Programming Languages: Java, Python, C#, Javascript/Typescript
  • Frameworks: Spring/SpringBoot, FastAPI
  • Front End Technologies: Angular/React
  • Deployment Technologies: Kubernetes, Docker
  • Source Control: GitHub, Azure DevOps
  • CICD: GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps
  • Data management: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
  • Integration/APIs Technologies: Kafka, REST, GraphQL
  • Cloud Providers: Azure and AWS
  • Test Automation: Selenium, TestNG, Postman, SonarQube, Cypress, JUnit/NUnit/PyTest, Cucumber, Playwright, Wiremock/Mockito/Moq
• Ability to optimize solutions for performance, resiliency and reliability while maintaining an eye toward simplicity
• Ability to concisely convey ideas verbally, in writing, in code, and in diagrams
• Ability to optimize system designs spanning multiple teams to allow small, safe, incremental releases
• Ability to work through others by cooperatively sharing responsibilities
• Ability to combines deep knowledge of a product domain with awareness of advancing technology to introduce solutions that propel the technical capability of the organization forward.
• Proficiency in object-oriented design techniques and principles
• Proficiency in Agile methodologies, such as SCRUM
• Proficiency in DevOps Toolchain methodologies, including Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
   

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.