Lead API & Automation Engineer - Modernization

United; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 112,000 - 147,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Parental leave

Employee assistance program

Commuter benefits

Paid holidays

Paid time off

401(k)

Flight privileges

Job summary

United Airlines is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain RESTful APIs and reusable automation services that modernize enterprise platforms. You will collaborate across platform, infrastructure, DevOps, and application teams to deliver scalable, secure self‑service capabilities with strong observability and documentation.

The role emphasizes API design, security, and modernization roadmaps, with a focus on reliability and user experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or related degree.
• 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Strong experience developing RESTful APIs and microservices.
• Experience with enterprise automation tools, job schedulers, or file transfer platforms.
• Proficiency in object‑oriented programming (Java, Python, or similar).
• Understanding of API design principles, authentication (OAuth, JWT), and service orchestration.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Strong problem‑solving and analytical mindset.
• Ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain REST APIs to enable automation and self‑service across enterprise platforms.
• Modernize legacy automation workflows by exposing reusable services and APIs.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to integrate automation solutions.
• Drive adoption of self‑service capabilities with API‑driven interfaces and documentation.
• Implement best practices for API design, versioning, scalability, and security.
• Contribute to architectural design discussions and modernization roadmaps.
• Integrate observability and monitoring to ensure high availability and reliability.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex system and integration issues.

Skills

RESTful APIs

Microservices

Java

Python

OAuth

JWT

CI/CD

DevOps practices

Problem-solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science

Tools

GitHub Actions

Ansible

Automation Platform

Harness

SkyNet

Operations Orchestrator

Control-M

Observability tools (Big Panda, Dynatrace)

Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Job description

United Airlines is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain RESTful APIs and reusable automation services that modernize enterprise platforms. You will collaborate across platform, infrastructure, DevOps, and application teams to deliver scalable, secure self‑service capabilities with strong observability and documentation.

The role emphasizes API design, security, and modernization roadmaps, with a focus on reliability and user experience.