The Role
Leads an enterprise Agent Ops Enablement organization responsible for AI platform engineering, observability, evaluations, autonomous recommendations, and operational excellence. Manages cross-functional Product, Software Engineering, and Data Engineering teams while shaping platform strategy and delivering scalable cloud-native solutions on AWS. The role requires strong expertise in AI/ML platforms, agentic and generative AI, RAG architectures, distributed systems, APIs, and 24x7 production operations, along with people leadership, stakeholder management, and enterprise technology delivery.
Summary Generated by Built In
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:
Job Summary
- Provide a People focused approach to Technology Leadership. Apply department/enterprise business knowledge to ensure value alignment. Accountable for the delivery and support of solutions and services that are technically and functionally solid, well integrated, comply with technical strategy, and meet or exceed Customer requirements.
Model the Southwest Way
- Guide and lead team members using SWA talent management practices to coach, develop, and engage employees
- Adhere to Company values and competencies to foster a culture of inclusion, recognition, and support of a safe work environment
- Invest in leadership and self-growth through participating in continuous learning and development
Responsibilities
- Lead, support, and influence the achievement of the mission, goals and objectives of the department and organization
- Participate fully in organizational processes and initiatives, i.e. performance management, interviewing, budgeting, training, etc.
- Lead the resolution of organization, team and individual issues, making appropriate decision
- Develop and execute strategies and processes to improve performance and the value of products and services provided
- Lead cross-functional Teams to deliver solutions and services to meet enterprise needs
- Provide Technical thought Leadership related to assigned functional areas
- Deliver technology solutions using best practices to achieve maximum Team productivity while delivering high quality products
- Stay abreast of emerging trends, processes, and solutions related to assigned responsibilities
- Build strong, collaborative relationships and credibility while influencing and driving change across respective Business and Technology Teams
- Work with Technology and business partners to measure financial benefits and demonstrable business value
- May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders
- 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, Data Engineering, AI/ML Platforms, or related technology domains, including experience leading engineering teams.
- Strong experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS using services such as Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, API Gateway, EventBridge, CloudWatch, Step Functions, and IAM.
- Experience leading engineering teams building scalable APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and platform services using Python, SQL, and modern software engineering practices.
- Strong understanding of AI/ML platforms, Agentic AI, Generative AI, RAG architectures, vector databases, observability, monitoring, logging, tracing, and operational excellence.
- Experience delivering enterprise-scale technology programs while partnering with Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Business teams to drive end-to-end delivery and business outcomes.
- Lead a net-new Agent Ops Enablement organization responsible for the engineering foundation of Agentic AI capabilities across the enterprise.
- Own a cross-functional team spanning Product, Software Engineering, and Data Engineering while shaping the future of AI Observability, Evaluations, and Autonomous Recommendations.
- Drive platform strategy, operational excellence, and engineering enablement for next-generation AI products at scale.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Knowledge of business/Leadership principals, including planning, organizing, directing, developing, and supervising
- Knowledge of personnel practices and regulations
- Knowledge of software development practices, concepts, methodologies, tools and trends
- Proficient knowledge of project management methodologies
- Skilled in excellent partnering, negotiation and communication in order to facilitate interactions with business Customers and technology teams
- Ability to provide tactical leadership for Team(s)
- Ability to use appropriate motivation and influence techniques to achieve desired Team results
- Ability to set and manage stakeholder expectations
- Ability to deliver quality projects on time and within budget
- Ability to manage projects using the organization's project management methodology
- 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, Data Engineering, AI/ML Platforms, or related technology domains, including experience leading engineering teams.
- Strong experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS using services such as Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, API Gateway, EventBridge, CloudWatch, Step Functions, and IAM.
- Experience leading engineering teams building scalable APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and platform services using Python, SQL, and modern software engineering practices.
- Strong understanding of AI/ML platforms, Agentic AI, Generative AI, RAG architectures, vector databases, observability, monitoring, logging, tracing, and operational excellence.
- Experience delivering enterprise-scale technology programs while partnering with Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Business teams to drive end-to-end delivery and business outcomes.
- Experience with OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, or similar observability platforms.
- Experience with LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI, MCP, Google ADK, or similar Agentic AI frameworks.
- Experience with Kafka, Kinesis, event-driven architectures, and telemetry platforms.
- Experience leading global teams supporting production and 24x7 operational environments.
Education
- Required: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or related field and/or equivalent formal training
Experience
- Demonstrated experience in directly or indirectly leading team(s)
- Fully functioning, broad knowledge in:
- Business and/or Information Technology environment
- Leading teams and providing work direction
- 8-12 years relevant work-related / leadership experience
- 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering, Data Engineering, AI/ML Platforms, or related technology domains, including experience leading engineering teams.
- Strong experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS using services such as Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, API Gateway, EventBridge, CloudWatch, Step Functions, and IAM.
- Experience leading engineering teams building scalable APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and platform services using Python, SQL, and modern software engineering practices.
- Strong understanding of AI/ML platforms, Agentic AI, Generative AI, RAG architectures, vector databases, observability, monitoring, logging, tracing, and operational excellence.
- Experience delivering enterprise-scale technology programs while partnering with Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Business teams to drive end-to-end delivery and business outcomes.
- Experience with OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, or similar observability platforms.
- Experience with LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI, MCP, Google ADK, or similar Agentic AI frameworks.
- Experience with Kafka, Kinesis, event-driven architectures, and telemetry platforms.
Other Qualifications
- Must meet confidentiality expectations as to confidential, proprietary and sensitive Company information
- Ability to work extended hours as needed
- Ability to work onsite approximately 3 days per week and as required by the business.
Southwest Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent formal training
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, cloud engineering, data engineering, AI/ML platforms, or related technology domains
- Experience leading engineering teams
- Experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS
- Experience with AWS Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, API Gateway, EventBridge, CloudWatch, Step Functions, and IAM
- Experience building scalable APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and platform services
- Experience with Python and SQL
- Strong understanding of AI/ML platforms, Agentic AI, Generative AI, RAG architectures, vector databases, observability, monitoring, logging, tracing, and operational excellence
- Experience delivering enterprise-scale technology programs and partnering across Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Business teams
- Experience directly or indirectly leading teams and providing work direction
- Experience with OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, or similar observability platforms
- Experience with LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI, MCP, Google ADK, or similar agentic AI frameworks
- Experience with Kafka, Kinesis, event-driven architectures, and telemetry platforms
- Experience leading global teams supporting production and 24x7 operational environments
- Ability to work onsite approximately three days per week and as required by the business
- Ability to work extended hours as needed
- Ability to maintain confidentiality of proprietary and sensitive company information
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.
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The Company
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.
