Director, Customer AI Automation

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 objective

Stay abreast of business strategy, goals, objectives, and operational performance across retail, digital, customer experience, and customer support domain

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 period

Guide teams in designing, building, testing, and deploying AI agents, interfaces, voice automation solutions, and personalization capabilitie

Partner closely with Customer Support leadership to ensure AI automation complements and enhance agent capabilities, freeing agents to focus on high-value, complex customer interaction

Establish and maintain strong business relationships with both senior and operating level business leaders to ensure effective delivery of business deliverables and AI technology solution

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 goal

Advance, assist, and follow through on the resolution of issues related to the delivery of AI-powered solution

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 provider

Align with business partners on delivery success criteria and ensure AI solutions follow architectural standards, security protocols, and responsible AI principle

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 release

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 system

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 skill

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 provider

Prior experience in AI/ML platform development and deployment at scale

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), modern software development practices, and Agile methodologie

Experience building AI, chatbots, or voice automation solution

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 framework

Experience leading customer service technology delivery with deep knowledge of AI, voice automation tools, and IVR system

Experience designing AI solutions that integrate with contact center platforms and telephony system

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 methodologie

Knowledge of responsible AI principles, AI governance, and bias mitigation strategie

Experience in travel, retail, or e-commerce industry is a significant plu

Familiarity with United's technology stack and SDLC tool

Understanding of contact center operations, workforce management, and customer service metrics