Developer - Information Technology

United Airlines; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 117,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Flight privileges

Paid time off

401(k)

Job summary

United Airlines is seeking a Developer to build and enhance features in the Internal Developer Portal and to evolve United’s API ecosystem from Chicago. The role emphasizes API platform ownership, Kong gateway management, and applying reliability practices to improve platform stability and observability.

The ideal candidate will bring strong software engineering experience, API tooling expertise, and a focus on security, scalability, and cross-team collaboration to enable secure, resilient

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field.
• Experience in software engineering with cloud-native development and automation.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services and Infrastructure as Code (AWS CDK).
• Proficient in at least one language (e.g., .NET, Java, Python, JavaScript, or Go).
• Experience building developer portals or internal platforms using React and TypeScript.

Responsibilities

• Develop and enhance features within the Internal Developer Portal to improve developer self-service, API discoverability, onboarding, and platform adoption.
• Own, support, and improve the Kong API platform, including gateway config, routing, policies, plugins, and security controls.
• Collaborate with application teams to design, publish, secure, and manage APIs with scalable patterns for governance and reliability.
• Create reusable developer experiences, templates, documentation, and automation for provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and operation of API services.
• Apply site reliability engineering practices to improve availability, observability, incident response, performance, and operational readiness.

Skills

Cloud-native development

React

TypeScript

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Leadership

Security best practices AWS

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

AWS CDK

Job description

Achieving our goals starts with supporting yours. Grow your career, access top-tier health and wellness benefits, build lasting connections with your team and our customers, and travel the world using our extensive route network.

Come join us to create what’s next. Let’s define tomorrow, together.

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

We are seeking a Developer to build and enhance features within our Internal Developer Portal while supporting the evolution of United’s API ecosystem. This role will focus on developing developer-facing capabilities, owning and improving the Kong API platform, and applying site reliability engineering practices to increase platform stability, observability, and operational excellence. The ideal candidate brings strong software engineering experience, API platform expertise, and a reliability-focused mindset to help application teams deliver secure, scalable, and resilient services.

• Develop and enhance features within the Internal Developer Portal to improve developer self-service, API discoverability, onboarding, and platform adoption.

• Own, support, and continuously improve the Kong API platform, including gateway configuration, API routing, policies, plugins, security controls, and operational standards.

• Partner with application teams to design, publish, secure, and manage APIs using scalable patterns that support consistency, governance, and reliability across the API ecosystem.

• Build reusable developer experiences, templates, documentation, and automation that make it easier for teams to provision, deploy, monitor, and operate API services.

• Apply site reliability engineering practices to improve availability, observability, incident response, performance, and operational readiness for platform and API services.

• Define and maintain standards for API development, platform components, deployment practices, security, and maintainability across developer-facing capabilities.

• Monitor platform health, identify reliability risks, troubleshoot production issues, and drive continuous improvement through automation, logging, metrics, and alerting.

• Collaborate with product, architecture, security, and operations stakeholders to align the API platform and developer portal roadmap with organizational priorities.

• Lead technical discussions, demos, Lunch and Learn sessions, and workshops to help internal application teams adopt API platform capabilities, developer portal features, and SRE best practices.

Qualifications

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree

• Computer science, systems analysis or a related field preferred

• 2 + years of experience in software engineering with strong focus on cloud-native development and infrastructure automation.

• Hands‑on expertise in AWS services and architecture, with deep knowledge of Infrastructure as a Code using AWS CDK

• Proficient in at least one application development languages (.NET, Java, python, JavaScript, or Go), with ability to support cross-functional teams consuming platform tools and libraries.

• Experience building or contributing to internal platform or developer portals using React and TypeScript

• Proven ability to collaborate with software teams and guide them in adopting platform tools and best practices

• Strong understanding of cloud security, IAM, cost optimization and operational excellence in an AWS environment

• Experience optimizing applications, both stand‑alone and in distributed systems to maximize performance

• Excellent communication skills with experience in leading technical discussion, documentations, and knowledge sharing sessions

• Ability to balance hands‑on development with strategic planning and technical leadership

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship

What will help you propel from the pack (Preferred Qualifications):

• Cloud technologies (i.e., Azure, AWS)
• Dev Ops Experience
• Infrastructure knowledge
• 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.

The base pay range for this role is $89,965.00 to $117,212.00.

The base salary range/hourly rate listed is dependent on job-related, factors such as experience, education, and skills. This position is also eligible for bonus and/or long-term incentive compensation awards.

You may be eligible for the following competitive benefits: medical, dental, vision, life, accident & disability, parental leave, employee assistance program, commuter, paid holidays, paid time off, 401(k) and flight privileges.

United Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact [e-mail]