Senior Data Engineer – Customer AI Analytics

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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 highly skilled Senior Data Engineer to join our Retail AI Automation team. This role is critical in transforming massive volumes of conversational data, customer interaction logs, and AI agent performance metrics into actionable business insights that drive continuous improvement of our AI automation capabilities.

Our Vision:
We are giving our people the backup they've always deserved, so that when a customer needs a human, they get the most outstanding customer experience they can imagine from AI. You will be building the data infrastructure and analytics capabilities that measure, optimize, and prove the value of AI automation at scale.

You will be responsible for designing and building robust data pipelines that process millions of customer conversations, creating analytics data products that enable business stakeholders to understand AI performance, customer behavior, and operational impact across voice, chat, and future channels.

Data Product Architecture:

• Transform raw conversational data, AI agent logs, and customer interaction events into structured, reliable analytics data assets
• Design and build scalable data models that support AI performance monitoring, customer journey analytics, and business impact measurement
• Create reusable data products that enable self-service analytics for business stakeholders, data scientists, and AI engineers

Pipeline Development & Optimization:

• Build highly optimized, modular PySpark pipelines within Databricks to process large-scale conversational data and AI telemetry
• Convert ad-hoc analytical queries into production-ready data pipelines with rigorous testing and monitoring
• Implement incremental processing patterns and Delta Lake optimization techniques to minimize compute costs and improve query performance

Conversational Data Processing:

• Parse and structure complex, semi-structured conversational data including chat transcripts, voice call logs, AI agent decision traces, and customer intent classifications
• Standardize ingestion of diverse data sources including LLM prompt/response pairs, agent orchestration logs, and customer feedback signals
• Build precise conversation funnel metrics, AI containment rates, resolution accuracy, and customer satisfaction analytics

AI Performance Analytics:

• Design data models that enable comprehensive AI agent performance monitoring including response accuracy, latency, escalation patterns, and customer satisfaction
• Create analytics frameworks that measure business impact of AI automation including cost savings, wait time reduction, and operational efficiency gains
• Build attribution logic that connects AI interactions to downstream business outcomes such as bookings, customer retention, and contact center volume reduction

Data Governance & Quality:

• Enforce rigorous technical standards across all data products including schema enforcement, data quality validation, and comprehensive metadata documentation
• Implement standardized naming conventions, data lineage tracking, and documentation practices
• Ensure data products meet security, privacy, and compliance requirements for customer interaction data

Visualization & Reporting:

• Expose Databricks Delta tables to PowerBI and other visualization tools for business stakeholder consumption
• Partner with business analysts and product managers to design intuitive dashboards and reports that drive decision-making
• Create automated reporting frameworks that deliver regular insights on AI performance and business impact

Production Excellence:

• Transition experimental analytics work into robust, production-ready data assets with comprehensive monitoring and alerting
• Partner with analytics teams, AI engineers, and business stakeholders to ensure data products meet evolving business needs
• Document data products thoroughly to enable handoff to broader engineering teams for long-term maintenance

Qualifications

What's needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor's degree
• Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or related field preferred
• 3+ years of hands-on experience designing, optimizing, and maintaining large-scale data processing workloads
• Expert-level proficiency in PySpark and Databricks (DataFrames, Structured Streaming, Delta Lake)
• Advanced SQL skills with deep expertise in writing and optimizing complex, high-volume queries
• Experience with cloud data platforms, preferably AWS (Redshift, S3, Glue, Athena)
• Proven track record of parsing and structuring complex, semi-structured data (JSON, nested structures, logs)
• Strong understanding of analytics data modeling and dimensional design principles
• Experience building data pipelines that support business intelligence and reporting use cases
• Proficiency with PowerBI or similar visualization tools for exposing data products to business users
• Self-starter mentality capable of auditing unfamiliar schemas, reverse-engineering logic, and delivering production-ready solutions with minimal guidance
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship
• Successful completion of interview required to meet job qualification
• Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position

Preferred:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or related field
• Experience processing conversational data, chat logs, voice transcripts, or customer interaction data
• Familiarity with AI/ML telemetry, LLM prompt/response data, or agent orchestration logs
• Experience building analytics for AI systems including performance monitoring, accuracy measurement, and impact analysis
• Knowledge of natural language processing (NLP) concepts and text analytics
• Experience with real-time streaming data processing and event-driven architectures
• Familiarity with data quality frameworks and automated testing for data pipelines
• Experience with contact center analytics, customer journey analytics, or operational efficiency metrics
• Understanding of how to map system performance data to business outcomes and customer experience metrics
• Prior experience in travel, e-commerce, retail, or customer service industries
• Experience working in fast-paced, enterprise-scale environments with complex data ecosystems
• Knowledge of data governance, privacy regulations, and responsible AI data practices
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and collaborative development practices

The base pay range for this role is $117,610.00 to $153,146.00.
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 JobAccommodations@united.com