Tech Lead Software Engineer

Department:

Technology

Our Company Promise

We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.

Job Description:

As a Tech Lead Software Engineer, you'll help shape the mission-critical data and optimization engines that keep Southwest running safe, reliable, and efficient. You'll guide the a Pod that sources and curates airline data across multiple domains, ensuring it's accurate, scalable, and ready for software which supports network planning and rapid recovery decisions when operations are disrupted. You'll lead the technical direction, mentor Developers, and provide hands-on support to the Team building complex, high-performance C++ models, translating business needs into robust designs, test automation, and dependable deployments. You'll partner closely with Business Leaders, Solution Architects, shared services Teams, and Operations stakeholders to align capacity, architecture, and non-functional requirements like performance and reliability. Your work will strengthen decision-making and recovery speed, reduce risk, and unlock measurable value for Southwest's operation and Customers-powering more dependable schedules, better use of our assets, and long-term success for our Employees and the business.

Additional Details

• This role is offered as a remote workplace position, which may require travel for trainings, meetings, conferences, etc. Outside of those required visits, the majority of your working time may be spent in a remote location, away from our Corporate Campus. Please note, while this is a remote position, there is limited group of states or localities ineligible for Employees to regularly perform their work off-site. Those ineligible locations are: Alaska, Delaware, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico.

• U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S. required and no current or future work authorization sponsorship available.

We're committed to fair hiring practices and to making employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other legally protected characteristics.

Responsibilities

• Provide accurate development estimates in support of feasibility assessments and planned development activities
• Create, maintain, review and approve application designs in collaboration with Solution Architects and shared services Teams, ensuring alignment to the appropriate solution architectures and taking tradeoffs into account
• Develop, maintain, and review software with a focus on quality and maintainability
• Develop, maintain, review, and execute unit, functional, and integration tests with a focus on automation and test-driven development
• Provide technical oversight for performance testing, ensuring plan and outcomes align to expected non-functional requirements
• Plan and oversee application deployment activities and sequencing in non-production and production environments
• Investigate new technologies that could improve the applications and development activities
• Identify and resolve technical debt as appropriate, weighing the development effort against the value returned
• Mentor and coach Development Team on relevant architecture, design, development, and operations topics
• Evaluate code to ensure that it is valid, is properly structured, meets industry standards, and is compatible with browsers, devices, or operating systems
• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Advanced knowledge of software development methodologies, practices, concepts, and technologies
• Advanced knowledge of at least one programming language and at least general knowledge of one or more additional programming languages
• Knowledge of project management methodology and principles
• Ability to demonstrate strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with a proactive mindset to get ahead of issues
• Skilled in communication with ability to articulate a clear direction and priorities on ideas, approaches, concepts, options, risks, impacts, and recommendations to technical, non-technical, and Leadership audiences with ability to adapt the message accordingly
• Ability to articulate the technical implementation and how it provides business value
• Ability to lead ideation, presentation, and group-thinking sessions
• Ability to influence effectively without authority up through Senior Leadership levels to achieve desired business outcomes
• Ability to lead multiple efforts concurrently, whether administrative or project related, while maintaining a successful level of completion in their own work
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, Team-based, Customer service-oriented environment

Education

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

Experience

• Required: Expert level experience, expansive and far reaching knowledge in software engineering
• Preferred: Experience implementing and managing CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins or GitLab
• Preferred: Experience with branching and release strategies to support efficient software delivery
• Preferred: Experience executing Blue/Green and Canary deployment strategies for application releases
• Preferred: Experience utilizing feature flags to enable controlled feature rollouts
• Preferred: Experience managing multiple environments to maintain development, QA, and production parity
• Preferred: Experience developing and maintaining applications using C++

Licensing/Certification

• N/A

Physical Abilities

• Ability to perform work duties from [limited space work station/desk/office area] for extended periods of time
• Ability to communicate and interact with others in the English language to meet the demands of the job
• Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools with sufficient speed and accuracy to meet the demands of the job

Other Qualifications

• Must maintain a well-groomed appearance per Company appearance standards as described in established guidelines
• Must be a U.S. citizen or have authorization to work in the United States as defined by the Immigration Reform Act of 1986
• Must be at least 18 years of age
• Must be able to comply with Company attendance standards as described in established guidelines
• Must be able to travel and /or attend Company and non-Company facilities and remote locations such as remote-based offices as necessary

Pay & Benefits:

• Competitive market salary from $160,550 per year to $178,400 per year* depending on qualifications and experience. For eligible Leadership and individual contributor roles, additional bonus opportunities are available and awarded at the discretion of the Company.

Benefits you'll love

• Fly for free, as a privilege, on any open seat on all Southwest flights (your eligible dependents too)

• Southwest will help fund your Retirement Savings Plan, which includes a dollar-for-dollar 401(k) Company match contribution of up to 9.3% of your eligible earnings

• Potential for annual profit-sharing contribution in the Southwest Retirement Savings Plan-when Southwest profits, you profit*

• Competitive health insurance for you and your eligible dependents

• Southwest offers health plan coverage options that start from the very first day of employment. You'll have 30 days to select and enroll in your health plan, and coverage will be retroactively available to your first day of employment.

• Explore more benefits you'll love: https://careers.southwestair.com/benefits

• Pay amount doesn't guarantee employment for any particular period.

401(k) Company match contributions are subject to the plan's vesting schedule. Match contributions may vary based on the position.

• Profit-sharing contributions are subject to the Retirement Savings Plan vesting schedule and are made at the discretion of the Company.

Southwest Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Job Posting End Date

10/16/2026