Principal Solution Architect Data

About the Role

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

As one diverse, high-performing team dedicated to technical excellence, you will focus relentlessly on delivering unrivaled digital products that drive a more reliable and profitable airline. The Data Domain refers to the area within Information Technology that focuses on managing and leveraging data as a strategic asset. This includes data management, storage, integration and governance. The Data domain leans into Machine Learning and AI, as well as Data Science and Business Intelligence.

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.

• Design and architect end-to-end data solutions using Databricks, Teradata, and Azure Data Lake within a Lakehouse and Medallion (Bronze, Silver, Gold) architecture.
• Define and drive ETL/ELT pipeline architectures, data integration patterns, and data delivery strategies across the enterprise data platform.
• Write, test, and document technical work products (e.g., code, scripts, processes) according to organizational standards and practices.
• Deliver high quality work and coach team members on technical craftsmanship.
• Conduct root cause analysis to identify systemic problems and defines and leads execution of action items to address them.
• Design thoughtfully integrated systems that model organizational best practices, allowing disparate teams across product domains to deliver value with speed, scale, and reliability.
• Lead the design of data mesh and Medallion architectures, enabling domain-aligned ownership while maintaining interoperability, consistency, and enterprise governance.
• Oversee the management of technical debt in existing systems and drive opportunities to eliminate it within ongoing implementations.
• Consistently anticipate scaling, latency, and durability challenges and guide teams in implementation of mitigating strategies.
• Partner with the security organization to incorporate security-conscious practices early in the lifecycle of new systems.
• Thoughtfully evaluate technical risks and guide toward practical prevention strategies.
• Consistently work across teams to break down silos and resolve problems collaboratively.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with engineering and product leaders as well as key vendors across span of influence to capitalize on synergies within related organizations.
• Clearly translate technical strategy into implementable componentry within the context of the relevant business area.
• Maintain a focus on removing duplication of effort across teams and proactively identify opportunities for reuse within their span of influence.
• Mentor individuals on teams across their span of influence.
• Ensure teams across their span of influence are directionally aligned on the engineering strategy of their product domain and lead cross-team efforts that advance and influence organizational strategy.

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology, Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training.
• 9+ years applicable experience in data engineering, ETL/ELT development, or data platform architecture with 3+ years in cloud strategy (Azure preferred) required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology, Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training.
• 7+ years applicable experience in data engineering, ETL/ELT development, or data platform architecture with 2+ years in cloud strategy (Azure preferred) required.

Skills, Licenses & Certifications

• Strong hands-on experience with Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Spark), Teradata Vantage, and Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2).
• Deep understanding of Lakehouse architecture and Medallion (Bronze/Silver/Gold) data layer patterns.
• Proven experience designing and building ETL/ELT pipelines at scale using tools such as Azure Data Factory, Databricks notebooks/jobs, or equivalent.
• Strong skills in distributed and parallel computing technologies and operating systems like Azure, Amazon cloud architecture and in-memory processing using Spark.
• Any of Azure, AWS, Teradata Vantage, Databricks, MS Fabric or Snowflake architecture certification will be a plus.
• Good understanding of cloud data security architecture for authentication, multi-tenancy/authorization, auditing and governance.
• Experienced with the data analytics ecosystem: data integration, data delivery, data preparation, data discovery, data processing, data storage, data science, machine learning, etc.
• Familiarity with Data Mesh principles and domain-oriented data ownership patterns.
• Aptitude to learn techniques and technologies regarding mathematical modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
• Experienced in object-oriented, real-time messaging and relational database management technologies.
• Good understanding and knowledge of Software development life cycles; Agile project management methodology is a must.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Interact with enterprise architects, follow guideline standards, communicate and present enterprise data initiatives to the American architecture community.
• Analyze, discover, document, and communicate design options for implementing analysis specifications.
• Ability to be flexible and focused in delivering products with different priorities and timelines.
• Work closely with other system architects to ensure decisions meet long-term enterprise needs.
• Interface with management, business analysts, project managers, IT Architects and other developers, along with internal customers, to understand requirements and develop needs according to business requirements.
• Experience in Agile methodologies.
• Experience in DevOps toolchain and technologies.
• Airline Industry experience will be a plus.

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+ Employee 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.

Key skills/competency

• Principal Solution Architect Data
• Databricks
• Teradata
• Azure Data Lake
• Lakehouse Architecture
• Medallion Architecture
• ETL/ELT Pipelines
• Data Integration
• Cloud Strategy
• Data Governance