Tech Lead Software Engineer AI Ops/Support

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: About Us At Southwest Airlines, we believe that flying should feel like freedom. For over 50 years, weve been connecting people to what matters most with low fares, legendary hospitality, and a heart for service. Our culture is built on the principles of fun,friendliness, andfamily, making us one of the most admired workplaces in the world. If youre passionate about making a difference, love working in a fast-paced environment, and want to help millions of travelers reach their destinations with a smile, Southwest Airlines is the place for you. Here, your career can truly take flight. Job Summary The AI Ops & Support Pod partners with the AI Platforms team to operate, monitor, and support Southwest's AI and agentic capabilities around the clock. The team manages these solutions from an SLA and outcomes-based perspective ensuring reliability, performance, and effectiveness, and retraining models when needed to keep results on target.As Tech Lead Software Engineer AI Ops/Support, you'll set the technical bar for how Southwest's enterprise AI and agentic platforms are supported in production. You'll lead L2/L3 engineering, drive SRE practices at scale, and build an automation-first culture that turns every recurring incident into a permanent improvement. You'll also help shape a growing engineering community in our Hyderabad office focused on production reliability for one of the most complex and fast-evolving domains in technology.Lead and motivate a Team of developers in the planning, delivery, and operation of highly reliable software. Accountable for the technical quality of the software that the Development Team produces and closely collaborates with the Business and other Stakeholders to ensure software meets functional and non-functional expectations. Act as an interface between the Development Team and Leadership, ensuring capacity and skillsets are aligned to meet ongoing delivery expectations. Time is allocated across Project Leadership, Technical Leadership/Mentoring, and Software Development/System Engineering. ResponsibilitiesProvide accurate development estimates in support of feasibility assessments and planned development activitiesCreate, 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 accountDevelop, maintain, and review software with a focus on quality and maintainabilityDevelop, maintain, review, and execute unit, functional, and integration tests with a focus on automation and test-driven developmentProvide technical oversight for performance testing, ensuring plan and outcomes align to expected non-functional requirementsPlan and oversee application deployment activities and sequencing in non-production and production environmentsInvestigate new technologies that could improve the applications and development activitiesIdentify and resolve technical debt as appropriate, weighing the development effort against the value returnedMentor and coach Development Team on relevant architecture, design, development, and operations topicsEvaluate code to ensure that it is valid, is properly structured, meets industry standards, and is compatible with browsers, devices, or operating systemsMay perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders Knowledge, Skills and AbilitiesAdvanced knowledge of software development methodologies, practices, concepts, and technologiesAdvanced knowledge of at least one programming language and at least general knowledge of one or more additional programming languagesKnowledge of project management methodology and principlesAbility to demonstrate strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with a proactive mindset to get ahead of issuesSkilled 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 accordinglyAbility to articulate the technical implementation and how it provides business valueAbility to lead ideation, presentation, and group-thinking sessionsAbility to influence effectively without authority up through Senior Leadership levels to achieve desired business outcomesAbility to lead multiple efforts concurrently, whether administrative or project related, while maintaining a successful level of completion in their own .