Sr Manager, Lost Time Administration and Strategy

American Airlines; Fort Worth (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel Perks

Health Benefits

Wellness Programs

401(k) Program

Employee Assistance Program

Job summary

American Airlines seeks a senior leader to oversee the centralized attendance and lost-time program across Airports, Contact Centers, and Inflight Dining. You will partner with Labor, People, IT, and Operations to deliver scalable solutions, policies, and tools that strengthen workforce reliability.

The role requires strategic vision, data-driven decision-making, and experience managing large, unionized environments, with travel as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or Master's degree or equivalent experience/training.
• 7+ years of prior managerial experience or relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead overall lost time strategy for Airport, Contact Centers, and Inflight Dining Operations, including leaves of absence and attendance policy.
• Define performance standards, strategic solutions, and success metrics to ensure the program scales effectively across hubs, stations, and contact centers.
• Monitor system-level trends and outcomes, adjusting strategy and resourcing approaches as needed to sustain results.
• Set the long-term vision for attendance, leave, and case-management tools, partnering with IT, Workforce Applications, and Product teams to define roadmaps and enterprise requirements.
• Leverage analytics, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities to shift the organization toward proactive, exception-based lost time management.
• Ensure executive-level reporting and insights that clearly articulate drivers, risks, and opportunities across Airports and Reservations.
• Collaborate with Labor, Legal and local subject matter experts to evaluate policy changes, mitigate risk, and align attendance practices with contractual and regulatory requirements.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex, high-risk, or precedent-setting attendance and leave matters.
• Lead and influence a decentralized team, ensuring alignment, accountability, and consistent execution across multiple management layers.
• Design and oversee a centralized lost time operating model capable of supporting high transaction volumes across calls, emails, system workflows, and case management activities.
• Collaborate with Airport and Contact Centers senior leadership to align lost time strategies with operational priorities, service reliability, and workforce engagement goals.
• Partner with Safety and People team to reduce employee injuries and support return to work initiatives.
• Partner with Workforce Applications team to set the long-term vision for tools impacting the administration of attendance policies for airport workgroups.
• Travel as necessary

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Consensus building

Creative problem solving

Multitasking

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree or equivalent

Tools

PM tools

Job description

Are you ready to explore a world of possibilities, both at work and during your time off? Join our American Airlines family, and you’ll travel the world, grow your expertise and become the best version of you. As you embark on a new journey, you’ll tackle challenges with flexibility and grace, learning new skills and advancing your career while having the time of your life. Feel free to enrich both your personal and work life and hop on board!

Why you'll love this job

The role operates within the Operations Administration team in the Customer and Operational Excellence organization, shaping scalable solutions that deliver systemwide impact. This role builds and manages a centralized attendance and lost‑time administration program supporting Airports, Contact Centers, and Inflight Dining, ensuring consistent processes and reliable workforce operations across a large frontline population. It partners closely with Labor, the People Team, operational leaders, and support groups to drive enterprise‑wide improvements while leading the evolution of policies, processes, and technologies that strengthen workforce reliability, enhance the employee experience, and support cost discipline.

What you'll do

As noted above, this list is intended to reflect the current job but there may be additional essential functions (and certainly non‑essential job functions) that are not referenced. Management will modify the job or require other tasks be performed whenever it is deemed appropriate to do so, observing, of course, any legal obligations including any collective bargaining obligations.

• Lead overall lost time strategy for Airport, Contact Centers, and Inflight Dining Operations, including leaves of absence and attendance policy
• Define performance standards, strategic solutions, and success metrics to ensure the program scales effectively across hubs, stations, and contact centers.
• Monitor system‑level trends and outcomes, adjusting strategy and resourcing approaches as needed to sustain results
• Set the long‑term vision for attendance, leave, and case‑management tools, partnering with IT, Workforce Applications, and Product teams to define roadmaps and enterprise requirements.
• Leverage analytics, automation, and AI‑enabled capabilities to shift the organization toward proactive, exception‑based lost time management.
• Ensure executive‑level reporting and insights that clearly articulate drivers, risks, and opportunities across Airports and Reservations
• Collaborate with Labor, Legal and local subject matter experts to evaluate policy changes, mitigate risk, and align attendance practices with contractual and regulatory requirements
• Serve as the escalation point for complex, high‑risk, or precedent‑setting attendance and leave matters
• Lead and influence a decentralized team, ensuring alignment, accountability, and consistent execution across multiple management layers
• Design and oversee a centralized lost time operating model capable of supporting high transaction volumes across calls, emails, system workflows, and case management activities
• Collaborate with Airport and Contact Centers senior leadership to align lost time strategies with operational priorities, service reliability, and workforce engagement goals
• Partner with Safety and People team to reduce employee injuries and support return to work initiatives
• Partner with Workforce Applications team to set the long‑term vision for tools impacting the administration of attendance policies for airport workgroups
• Travel as necessary

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Bachelor's degree or Master's degree or equivalent experience/training
• 7+ years of prior managerial experience or relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Demonstrated success leading enterprise‑level attendance, workforce, or compliance programs across large, distributed, or unionized organizations
• Experience working with and presenting to senior leadership
• Deep familiarity with attendance policy administration, collective bargaining agreements, and regulated labor environments
• Experience partnering with Labor Relations, Legal, HR, and Safety on complex policy and compliance matters

Skills, Licenses & Certifications

• Ability to lead projects that impact multiple business units
• Ability to build consensus among workgroups on necessary changes
• Creative thinker and problem solver
• Ability to work effectively under pressure, manage multiple assignments and shift priorities as required, within a fast‑paced, dynamic work environments
• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle

What you'll get

Feel free to take advantage of all that American Airlines has to offer:

• Travel Perks: Ready to explore the world? You, your family and your friends can reach 365 destinations on more than 6,800 daily flights across our global network.
• Health Benefits: On day one, you’ll have access to your health, dental, prescription and vision benefits to help you stay well. And that’s just the start, we also offer virtual doctor visits, flexible spending accounts and more.
• Wellness Programs: We want you to be the best version of yourself – that’s why our wellness programs provide you with all the right tools, resources and support you need.
• 401(k) Program: Available upon hire and, depending on the workgroup, employer contributions to your 401(k) program are available after one year.
• Additional Benefits: Other great benefits include our Employee Assistance Program, pet insurance and discounts on hotels, cars, cruises and more

Feel free to be yourself at American

From the team members we hire to the customers we serve, inclusion and diversity are the foundation of the dynamic workforce at American Airlines. Our 20+ Team Member Business Resource Groups are focused on connecting our team members to our customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders, helping team members reach their full potential and creating an inclusive work environment to meet and exceed the needs of our diverse world.

Are you ready to feel a tremendous sense of pride and satisfaction as you do your part to keep the largest airline in the world running smoothly as we care for people on life’s journey? Feel free to be yourself at American.