{"id":1250941,"url":"https://alion.io/job/united-principal-architect-ai-engineer","title":"Principal Architect - AI Engineer","company":{"id":18409,"name":"United Airlines","domain":"united.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/united","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Schema","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":96,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.375,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":7,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Chicago, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":140600,"max":183108,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":183108},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agentic Workflows","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"A/B Testing","optional":true},{"name":"LangChain","optional":true},{"name":"LangGraph","optional":true},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-25T18:25:37Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-12","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T07:03:33Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":19,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":19},"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.\nDescription\nJob overview and responsibilities\nThe Principal AI Engineer will be instrumental in designing and delivering foundational Retail AI agentic workflows that transform the customer experience across all channels. This position will drive technological innovation in conversational AI and autonomous systems, shaping United's future as we advance our digital transformation. As a technical leader, you will have exceptional engineering expertise, strong communication skills, and a deep understanding of AI agent architectures, LLM integration patterns, and production-grade system design.\nTechnical Leadership and Innovation\nDesign and implement production-grade AI agentic workflows using modern frameworks and industry best practices\nDevelop sophisticated conversational AI solutions that integrate seamlessly with United's retail systems and customer-facing channels across web, mobile, and voice\nBuild scalable, reliable AI agent architectures that support complex customer journeys and deliver measurable business outcomes\nEstablish engineering standards, patterns, and best practices for AI agent development across the organization\nDrive continuous improvement of AI system performance, reliability, and customer experience outcomes\nEvaluate emerging AI technologies and frameworks, making strategic recommendations for adoption\nCollaboration and Stakeholder Management\nEngage and collaborate with product managers, data scientists, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions\nPartner with Digital Technology, Customer Support & Advocacy, and Customer Experience organizations to align AI initiatives with strategic business objectives\nShare knowledge and mentor engineers, contributing to the growth of United's AI engineering capabilities\nProvide technical guidance and thought leadership on AI agent design patterns, prompt engineering, and LLM integration strategies\nFoster open communication within cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and successful delivery of AI-powered customer experiences\nSystem Design and Architecture\nDesign cloud-native AI solutions leveraging AWS services and modern microservices architectures\nImplement robust API integrations connecting AI agents with United's retail, inventory, and customer data systems\nEnsure compliance with security protocols, data governance standards, and engineering best practices throughout the development lifecycle\nBuild observability and monitoring capabilities to track AI system performance and customer experience metrics\nCollaborate with architecture teams to ensure AI solutions follow enterprise standards and scale effectively\nQualifications\nWhat's needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):\nBachelor's degree \nComputer Science, Engineering, or related technical field preferred\n7+ years of software engineering experience with strong Python development expertise\nProven experience designing and deploying production AI/ML systems at scale\nDeep understanding of AI agent architectures, prompt engineering, and LLM integration patterns\nStrong knowledge of API design, microservices architecture, and cloud platforms (AWS preferred)\nExperience with modern software development practices including CI/CD, testing, and observability\nOutstanding communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively engage stakeholders at all levels\nExcellent problem-solving skills and ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams\nAbility to effectively use software architecture design tools such as Lucid to create detailed technical architecture diagrams\nA mindset for continuous learning and staying updated on AI/ML industry trends and emerging technologies\nMust be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship\nSuccessful completion of interview required to meet job qualification\nReliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position\nWhat will help you propel from the pack (Preferred Qualifications):\nMaster's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field\nHands-on experience with LangChain and LangGraph for agent development\nExperience building conversational AI solutions for customer-facing applications in retail, e-commerce, or travel industries\nKnowledge of United's technology stack, SDLC tools, and enterprise systems\nExperience with real-time data processing and event-driven architectures\nFamiliarity with contact center platforms, voice automation tools, and omnichannel customer experience systems\n3+ years of experience building Generative AI and Conversational AI platforms\nExperience with AI model evaluation, A/B testing, and performance optimization techniques\nUnderstanding of responsible AI principles, bias mitigation, and AI governance frameworks\nThe base pay range for this role is $140,600.00 to $183,108.00.\nThe 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.\nYou 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.\nUnited 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. 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