Department:
TechnologyOur Company Promise
We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.
Job Description:
The Lead Technology Analyst supports enterprise AI initiatives by Leading data governance practices that ensure AI solutions are trustworthy, compliant, and scalable. They’ll conduct needs analysis and establish standards for AI data quality, lineage, privacy, security, and responsible data use while ensuring solutions align with enterprise requirements and governance expectations. They’ll partner across Technology, Data Governance, AI Governance, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Legal, and business Teams to translate complex requirements into practical and repeatable processes. The Lead Technology Analyst leverages strong analytical, communication, and influencing skills to drive alignment, support responsible AI practices, and ensure AI systems use secure, traceable, and reliable data.
Additional Details
This role allows for voluntary remote work for the majority of your working time within the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with occasional on-site presence at our Corporate Campus for training, meetings, and business needs. This role may also require limited travel for business purposes.
U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S. required and no current or future work authorization sponsorship available.
We’re committed to fair hiring practices and to making employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other legally protected characteristics.
- Apply and teach knowledge and skills of analysis, business processes, tools, domains, project methodologies, requirements definitions, and testing to solve a range of problems
- Partner with other Technology Team members to provide advice or solutions within areas of expertise
- Identify and provide strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems and search for and seize opportunities to do more or to do things better
- Estimate effort and value for solutions
- Apply and teach business solutions with broad level knowledge about technology platforms/architectures
- Verify information and carefully review and check the accuracy of your own work and the work of others’ using dependency identification processes in technology work
- Establish or follow prioritization processes to drive work, completing work with a sense of urgency
- Express ideas, business or technical requirements clearly and concisely verbally and in writing using appropriate levels of summary and synthesis on a regular and consistent basis
- Monitor program risks, issues, and scope, ensuring the appropriate level of priority, visibility and escalation
- May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders
- Advanced knowledge of business analysis, process modeling and redesign
- Advanced knowledge of technical environments
- Advanced knowledge of software development methodologies
- Skilled in excellent partnering, communication, and negotiation in working with various Teams and/or external partners
- Ability to analyze large, complex, or vague Business or technical problems, articulating the problem or root cause, and translating the analysis into viable solution recommendations
- Ability to analyze data and trends, draw conclusions, and make recommendations based on analysis
- Ability to work effectively in a strong Customer service/team oriented environment
- Ability to research, create, and document requirements, processes, and technical specifications
- Ability to manage and prioritize multiple and widely varied work streams/tasks
- Ability to take on multiple assignments, whether administrative or project related, while maintaining a successful level of completion in all responsible work; able to mentor others to do the same
- Ability to develop, present and effectively communicate ideas and strategies to a variety of audiences, including Senior Leadership
- Ability to teach and mentor others concerning technical and business subjects
- Required: High School Diploma or GED
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information systems or similar fields of study or equivalent advanced level experience
- Required: Expert-level experience, seasoned and specialized knowledge in information technology (IT) operations, programming, systems/software development or another IT related field
- Preferred: Advanced understanding of data governance practices, including data quality, lineage, metadata, lifecycle management, privacy, security, compliance, and responsible data use.
Preferred: Working knowledge of AI governance frameworks, including the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and the role of data governance in supporting responsible AI, risk management, and regulatory compliance.
- Preferred: Ability to define, document, and operationalize data standards for AI systems, including training, testing, and production data, metadata, lineage, model inputs and outputs, assumptions, and documentation requirements.
- Preferred: Strong ability to assess dataset quality, completeness, integrity, representativeness, suitability, bias, demographic proxy risks, and other responsible AI considerations.
- Preferred: Experience establishing traceability and governance across the AI data lifecycle, including data sourcing, collection, transformation, usage, monitoring, retention, refresh, decommissioning, and data provenance documentation.
- Preferred: Understanding of privacy, cybersecurity, third-party risk, regulatory requirements, and sensitive or restricted data considerations related to AI systems.
- Preferred: Experience creating controls, standards, procedures, and governance processes that support scalable, repeatable, and audit-ready governance practices.
- Preferred: Experience supporting AI, machine learning, advanced analytics, automation, or data science initiatives, including AI lifecycle governance, model monitoring, and data quality oversight in a large enterprise environment.
- Preferred: Experience with data catalogs, metadata management, data classification, data lineage, master data management, knowledge management, or similar governance tools.
- Preferred: Experience partnering with Cybersecurity, Privacy, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Architecture, and Data Governance Teams to implement enterprise controls and governance requirements.
- Preferred: Experience creating governance artifacts, operating procedures, executive summaries, dashboards, reports, and operational metrics to support decision-making and compliance.
- Preferred: Familiarity with cloud data platforms, AI platforms, analytics platforms, enterprise data ecosystems, and model development lifecycle concepts.
Licensing/Certification
- N/A
- Ability to perform work duties from [limited space work station/desk/office area] for extended periods of time
- Ability to communicate and interact with others in the English language to meet the demands of the job
- Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools with sufficient speed and accuracy to meet the demands of the job
- Must maintain a well-groomed appearance per Company appearance standards as described in established guidelines
- Must be a U.S. citizen or have authorization to work in the United States as defined by the Immigration Reform Act of 1986
- Must be at least 18 years of age
- Must be able to comply with Company attendance standards as described in established guidelines
- Must be able to travel and / or attend Company and non-Company facilities and remote locations such as remote-based offices as necessary
Pay & Benefits
Competitive market salary from $138,800 - $154,200 per year* depending on qualifications and experience, with opportunity for future pay increases based on performance and market movement. For eligible leadership and individual contributor roles, additional bonus opportunities are available and awarded at the discretion of the company.
Benefits you’ll love:
Fly for free, as a privilege, on any open seat on all Southwest flights (your eligible dependents too)
Southwest will help fund your Retirement Savings Plan with Company contributions up to 9.3% of your eligible earnings**
Potential for annual ProfitSharing contribution in the Southwest Retirement Savings Plan- when Southwest profits, you profit***
Competitive health insurance for you and your eligible dependents (including pets)
Southwest offers health plan coverage options that start from the very first day of employment. You will have 30 days to select and enroll in your health plan with coverage retroactively available to your first day of employment.
Explore more Benefits you’ll love: https://careers.southwestair.com/benefits
*Pay amount doesn’t guarantee employment for any particular period of time
**401(k) match contributions are subject to the plan’s vesting schedule and applicable IRS limits
***ProfitSharing contributions are subject to plan’s vesting schedule and are made at the discretion of the Company
Southwest Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Skills Required
- High School Diploma or GED
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or similar, or equivalent advanced experience
- Expert-level experience in IT operations, programming, systems/software development or another IT related field
- U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S.; no sponsorship available
- Must be at least 18 years of age
- Must maintain a well-groomed appearance per company standards
- Must be able to travel and/or attend company and non-company facilities and remote locations as necessary
- Ability to communicate and interact in English
- Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools
- Advanced knowledge of business analysis, process modeling and redesign
- Advanced knowledge of technical environments and software development methodologies
- Skilled partnering, communication, and negotiation with cross-functional teams
- Advanced understanding of data governance practices (data quality, lineage, metadata, lifecycle, privacy, security, compliance)
- Working knowledge of AI governance frameworks (including NIST AI Risk Management Framework)
- Ability to define, document, and operationalize data standards for AI systems (training, testing, production data, metadata, lineage)
- Experience assessing dataset quality, completeness, integrity, representativeness, bias, and related risks
- Experience establishing traceability and governance across the AI data lifecycle
- Understanding of privacy, cybersecurity, third-party risk, and regulatory requirements related to AI systems
- Experience creating controls, standards, procedures, and audit-ready governance practices
- Experience with data catalogs, metadata management, data classification, data lineage, and master data management
- Experience supporting AI, machine learning, analytics, automation, or data science initiatives (model monitoring and data quality oversight)
- Experience partnering with Cybersecurity, Privacy, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Architecture, and Data Governance teams
- Experience creating governance artifacts, dashboards, reports, and operational metrics
- Familiarity with cloud data platforms, AI platforms, and analytics platforms
Southwest Airlines Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Southwest Airlines and has not been reviewed or approved by Southwest Airlines.
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Pay Growth & Progression — Pay progression is described as materially improving after major 2024 union agreements, especially for pilots and flight attendants. Compensation satisfaction is framed as stronger over time as step scales and seniority accumulate.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support stands out through a dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match and the presence of profit-sharing contributions that can add to retirement savings. Stock purchase access is also positioned as an additional ownership-oriented component of total rewards.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing and lifestyle value is elevated by extensive space-available travel privileges and broad travel-related discounts that can materially offset personal travel costs. Recognition mechanisms like points-based rewards are also positioned as an added lifestyle-oriented perk.
Southwest Airlines Insights
What We Do
At Southwest Airlines we connect People to what’s important in their lives—that also means connecting our Employees to what’s important in their lives! Our Employees value the opportunity to work hard, be creative, and have fun on the job. Southwest Airlines recognizes, respects, and values differences. By fostering a culture that embraces and utilizes our diversity, we create competitive advantages in teamwork and innovation that contribute to our overall success.
