Principal Engineer, IT Systems Engineering - American Airlines : Job Details

Intro

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

• This job is a member of the Information Technology Team within the Information Technology Division.

• Responsible for supporting a wide range of infrastructure services, including but not limited to Cloud Technologies, Virtual Platforms, Desktop Virtualization, and Automation & Orchestration.

• Acts as the enterprise technical authority for VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), Cloud PC, Application Virtualization, and endpoint access strategies.

• Provides end-to-end technical leadership while sustaining a technical roadmap that aligns with business vision for supported domains.

• Defines architecture standards, patterns, and frameworks, ensuring solutions are technically viable, scalable, secure, and aligned with enterprise strategy.

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.

Architecture & Strategy

• Develop and maintain the enterprise desktop virtualization and infrastructure roadmap in alignment with business and IT strategies.

• Communicate a clear technical roadmap to executives, business sponsors, delivery teams, and technical staff.

• Define and maintain architecture standards for VDI, DaaS, hybrid cloud environments, and related enterprise infrastructure.

• Evaluate emerging technologies (e.g., Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, VMware Horizon, Amazon WorkSpaces) to recommend modernization initiatives.

• Leverage cross-business domain work to align efforts and create synergies.

Design & Implementation

• Lead the design and deployment of secure, high-performance desktop virtualization and infrastructure solutions.

• Define and optimize multi-site and hybrid architectures to ensure high availability, scalability, and performance.

• Collaborate with Cybersecurity to implement Zero Trust and compliance frameworks (SOC2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, etc.) for virtual and physical infrastructure.

• Deliver architectural solutions that incorporate industry and company technology standards.

Integration & Optimization

• Integrate virtual desktop solutions with enterprise authentication, device management, and monitoring tools (e.g., Intune, Jamf, Tanium, Dynatrace, Splunk).

• Optimize image management, application packaging, provisioning automation, and performance tuning.

• Assess risk for production deployments of business-critical applications, evaluating readiness, scalability, stability, and best practices adherence.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Partner with IT leadership, Infrastructure, and Security teams to deliver cohesive end-user computing strategies.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineering and support teams.

• Serve as a subject matter expert for large-scale deployments and migrations.

• Actively participate in requirements analysis, proofs of concept, RFI/RFP processes, and solution delivery.

Documentation & Governance

• Maintain high-level designs, configuration standards, operational procedures, and governance models.

• Conduct design reviews to ensure alignment with enterprise standards.

• Establish and maintain SLAs for deployment and ongoing operations.

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology, Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering, or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training.

• 10 years of technical architecture and design experience.

• 8 years infrastructure engineering experience.

• 5 years public and private/internal cloud technologies experience.

• 5+ years in desktop virtualization and end-user computing design/implementation.

Preferred Qualifications- Education & Prior Job Experience

• Master's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Technology , Information Systems (CIS/MIS), Engineering or related technical discipline, or equivalent experience/training

• 3 years of technical or team leadership experience

• Airline industry experience

Skills, Licenses & Certifications

• Hands-on experience in systems development in various architectures and environments.

• Strong expertise in VDI platforms (Citrix, VMware Horizon, Azure Virtual Desktop, Amazon WorkSpaces).

• Experience with cloud deployment patterns, microservices, real-time analytics, big data, and infrastructure automation/orchestration.

• Strong understanding of Windows 10/11, Active Directory, Azure AD, FSLogix, application virtualization, and hybrid architectures.

• Familiarity with device management (Intune, SCCM, Jamf) and enterprise monitoring solutions.

• Knowledge of networking, load balancers, and security best practices.

• Strong technical background in Solaris, Linux, UNIX, and Windows environments.

• Proven ability to manage multiple efforts concurrently in a high-urgency environment.

Preferred Certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

• Citrix Certified Expert - Virtualization (CCE-V).

• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Desktop and Mobility (VCAP-DTM).

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect (preferred for hybrid or DaaS models).

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.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY/ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY

American Airlines maintains a continuing policy of nondiscrimination in employment. It is our policy to provide equal opportunity and access for all persons, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or other protected veteran, in all phases of the employment process and in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This policy of nondiscrimination shall include, but not be limited to, the following employment decisions and practices: hiring; upgrading; promotions; demotions or transfers; layoffs; recalls; terminations; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; selection for training, including apprenticeship; and recruitment or recruitment advertising.