Mgr Technology - Platform & AI Accelerators

About Us

Job Summary

• The Platform & AI Accelerators Pod drives Southwest's next-generation cloud platform transformation — migrating from CloudFormation-based CCP to Terraform-based CCPNext, scaling Backstage Golden Paths, and delivering AI-driven platform accelerators. The team enables faster developer onboarding, consistent enterprise standards, and higher engineering productivity through reusable modules, automation, and AI-enabled tooling adopted across the organization.
• As Manager Technology – Platform & AI Accelerators, you'll lead a team driving enterprise-wide platform transformation — from CCPNext migration to Backstage Golden Paths to AI-driven accelerators adopted across Southwest engineering. You'll scale platform enablement across a global engineering ecosystem from our Hyderabad office, driving adoption, consistency, and delivery velocity.
• Provide a People focused approach to Technology Leadership. Apply department/enterprise business knowledge to ensure value alignment. Accountable for the delivery and support of solutions and services that are technically and functionally solid, well integrated, comply with technical strategy, and meet or exceed Customer requirements.

• Guide and lead team members using SWA talent management practices to coach, develop, and engage employees
• Adhere to Company values and competencies to foster a culture of inclusion, recognition, and support of a safe work environment
• Invest in leadership and self-growth through participating in continuous learning and development

• Lead, support, and influence the achievement of the mission, goals and objectives of the department and organization
• Participate fully in organizational processes and initiatives, i.e. performance management, interviewing, budgeting, training, etc.
• Lead the resolution of organization, team and individual issues, making appropriate decision
• Develop and execute strategies and processes to improve performance and the value of products and services provided
• Lead cross-functional Teams to deliver solutions and services to meet enterprise needs
• Provide Technical thought Leadership related to assigned functional areas
• Deliver technology solutions using best practices to achieve maximum Team productivity while delivering high quality products
• Stay abreast of emerging trends, processes, and solutions related to assigned responsibilities
• Build strong, collaborative relationships and credibility while influencing and driving change across respective Business and Technology Teams
• Work with Technology and business partners to measure financial benefits and demonstrable business value
• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

• Knowledge of business/Leadership principals, including planning, organizing, directing, developing, and supervising
• Knowledge of personnel practices and regulations
• Knowledge of software development practices, concepts, methodologies, tools and trends
• Proficient knowledge of project management methodologies
• Skilled in excellent partnering, negotiation and communication in order to facilitate interactions with business Customers and technology teams
• Ability to provide tactical leadership for Team(s)
• Ability to use appropriate motivation and influence techniques to achieve desired Team results
• Ability to set and manage stakeholder expectations
• Ability to deliver quality projects on time and within budget
• Ability to manage projects using the organization's project management methodology
• Preferred:
  • Enterprise-wide platform adoption, migration, or modernization initiatives
  • Terraform and cloud platform depth for enterprise-scale IaC
  • Backstage or developer portal experience for Golden Paths and platform accelerators
  • AI-enabled platform acceleration and developer productivity tooling
  • DevOps/CI-CD understanding across pipelines, automation, and developer workflows
  • Program execution across complex, multi-team, multi-stakeholder initiatives
  • Change management (ServiceNow) and enterprise adoption strategy
  • Cross-continental team leadership across a globally distributed engineering model

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information systems or similar fields of study or equivalent advanced level experience

• Demonstrated experience in directly or indirectly leading team(s)
• Fully functioning, broad knowledge in:
  • Business and/or Information Technology environment
  • Leading teams and providing work direction
  • 8-12 years relevant work-related / leadership experience
• Preferred:
  • Leading enterprise IaC migrations (CloudFormation → Terraform or comparable)
  • Driving enterprise-wide platform adoption through Golden Paths, portals, or accelerators
  • Delivering AI-enabled platform capabilities used across many engineering teams
  • Aligning engineering, product, and leadership to drive adoption at scale
  • Hiring, mentoring, and growing engineers and tech leads for platform work
  • Building team culture around ownership and platform-as-a-product mindset
  • Managing engineering teams across multiple time zones
    Airline, travel, or large enterprise IT experience

• Must meet confidentiality expectations as to confidential, proprietary and sensitive Company information
• Ability to work extended hours as needed