Program Manager - Pilot Strategy

Location Chicago, Illinois, United States

Category Corporate

Job Id  WHQ00025661

Flight Ops / Inflight - Management & Administrative

Job Type  Full-Time

Posted Date 09/21/2025 

Achieving our goals starts with supporting yours. Grow your career, access top-tier health and wellness benefits, build lasting connections with your team and our customers, and travel the world using our extensive route network.

Come join us to create what’s next. Let’s define tomorrow, together.

Description

Get ready for a career at the leading edge of the airline industry! Our Flight Operations team works hard to connect people and unite the world safely, reliably and efficiently every single day. From industry leadership and pioneering technologies to next-level training — our Flight Ops team hires, trains, qualifies and supports the best pilots in the industry. The moments we share in the air and on the ground with our customers and our colleagues make United a special place to work and a great way to fly, together.

Job overview and responsibilities

The Program Manager will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating multiple pilot pathway initiatives, including Aviate and Military Pathway Programs, to ensure alignment with organizational expectations and goals. This role supports a variety of pilot strategy programs, policies, projects, and technology efforts and requires a comprehensive understanding of all pathway initiatives. Reporting to the Senior Manager – Aviate and Pilot Strategy, the Program Manager will lead efforts in program reporting, compliance tracking, and performance analysis, while identifying and resolving inefficiencies across workflows. This position acts as a key cross-functional partner, collaborating closely with Pilot Hiring, UAX Commercial, HR, and other departments to ensure seamless execution and integration of program components. The ideal candidate will possess strong leadership, project management, and communication skills, with the ability to present insights and performance data to executive stakeholders and partner organizations. This role offers an opportunity to lead stakeholder meetings, manage high-impact relationships, and drive continuous improvement through data-informed decision-making.

• Strategy and program design
• Lead strategic efforts to identify and improve programs aligned with defined team objectives
• Support Sr Manager in strategy, KPI, objective, and goal creation and implementation
• Lead cross-functional collaboration between Pilot Hiring, UAX Commercial, Human Resources, and other internal stakeholders to drive seamless execution of pilot pathway programs, while identifying and resolving operational inefficiencies through structured project management and continuous process improvement
• Program management
• Manage key program components to support the needs of Aviate and the Military program, including the Aviate Coaching and Development program, Aviate Leave of Absence and employee program, participant compliance and offboarding, travel privileges, and customer support (e.g. HelpHub and ServiceNow)
• Analytics / Reporting
• Determine data and sources for analysis and reporting
• Conduct, interpret, and utilize data analysis to assess program performance, areas of opportunity, forecast future needs, and influence strategic decisions
• Develop effective reporting and visualizations to meet program needs
• Technology
• Serve as the subject matter expert for all technology platforms supporting the Aviate and Military Pathway Programs, including My Aviate, Salesforce, Foundry, and Azure DevOps (ADO), ensuring systems are leveraged effectively to drive program success and scalability Utilize technology to support and enhance participant, prospective, partner, and United stakeholder needs and experiences
• Create dashboard and forecast models to support strategic decision making
• Development
• Coordinate and manage efforts to identify and analyze participant performance for areas of opportunity
• Create and oversee implementation of recommendations to implement development opportunities or policy updates to improve participant preparedness and performance at UAL
• Engagement
• Support Aviate engagement efforts by providing insights, industry trend analysis, and program data to inform innovative engagement strategies and drive pilot pipeline success
• Serve as the relationship manager for UAX and 135 partner organizations, fostering strong partnerships, providing performance reporting and data-driven insights
• Program Compliance
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation and program reporting to support stakeholder evaluations and presentations

Qualifications

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor's degree or 4 years of relevant work experience in Aviation/Aeronautics, Business, Engineering, Communications, or related field
• 4+ years of airline/aviation business experience, or related field
• Knowledgeable of Aviate program to ensure alignment and consistency across all stakeholders and Aviate initiatives
• Project management experience 
• Excellent presentation delivery skills
• Organization skills and multitasking abilities 
• Must work well in a highly collaborative and fluid work environment
• Communicating, facilitating, or presenting to large audiences and key stakeholders
• Has knowledge of project management tools and techniques
• Possesses solid communication, multitasking, & analytical skills as well as project management capabilities 
• Able to coordinate inter-departmentally
• Ability to think strategically and recommend solutions to identified problem 
• Able to listen, assess and identify appropriate resources and communicate the solution
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship
• Successful completion of interview required to meet job qualification
• Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position

What will help you propel from the pack (Preferred Qualifications):

• Private Pilot License (PPL) or higher
• Airline/aviation business experience  
• Experience working directly with pilot hiring/recruiting 
• Data analytics experience or related field
• Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Understands pilot recruitment processes and key drivers of professional skills development
• Business acumen

The base pay range for this role is $99,750.00 to $129,924.00.
The base salary range/hourly rate listed is dependent on job-related, factors such as experience, education, and skills. This position is also eligible for bonus and/or long-term incentive compensation awards.

You may be eligible for the following competitive benefits: medical, dental, vision, life, accident & disability, parental leave, employee assistance program, commuter, paid holidays, paid time off, 401(k) and flight privileges.

United Airlines is an equal opportunity employer. United Airlines recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, veteran status and other protected status as required by applicable law. Equal Opportunity Employer - Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/LGBT.We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions. Please contact (see our website) to request accommodation.