Director - Solutions and Recovery Operations

United Airlines • Arlington Heights, IL

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

This role is hybrid and will work out of United’s Network Operations Center in Arlington Heights, IL. This role leads and manages the performance of the NOC Customer Interaction team within the Customer Solutions and Recovery organization. The Director, Solutions and Recovery Operations develops and supports multiple care and communications teams while leveraging resources to enhance overall performance. By fostering meaningful connections with both internal partners and customers, the role focuses on reducing customer effort and delivering a more personalized experience. Success will be achieved through consistent delivery of caring service, strong coaching and talent development, and effective performance management, while ensuring value creation and budget alignment across recovery channels. The role also builds the relationships necessary to evolve the recovery journey, ultimately simplifying the experience for both customers and team members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• 8+ years of overall experience, with 5+ years of experience working within a fast-paced operational or customer service environments
• Experience leading and developing large customer-facing teams
• Experience leveraging advanced technologies including AI and automation to modernize customer engagement
• Demonstrated ability to improve customer experience through process improvement, innovation, and operational excellence
• Experience managing team performance, coaching leaders, and driving accountability through metrics and performance management
• Strong partnership skills with cross-functional stakeholders including operations, communications, technology, and customer experience teams
• Experience using data, reporting, and performance metrics to drive operational decisions and continuous improvement
• Experience supporting recovery during operational disruptions or large-scale service events
• Proven ability to lead teams and deliver results in high-pressure or irregular operational environments
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders and lead change across the organization

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree
• 3 + years of Frontline Leadership Experience
• Experience in airline, travel, hospitality or other high-volume service

Responsibilities

• Transform the customer recovery journey by innovation and evaluating channels to improve customer interactions at various touchpoints in the customer journey including the “Every Flight Has A Story” workstream using GenAI where appropriate
• Responsible for performance management of recovery teams. Manage post travel customer interactions conducted by the care teams, with the intention of de-stressing the customer experience, minimizing complaints and response times
• Act as a customer advocate through Social Care, providing timely and accurate customer assistance where appropriate; work with partners across the organization to mitigate brand risk through direct Social Media interactions
• Develop long term team strategy across all of the customer facing workstreams in portfolio to drive change to business practices which are designed to mitigate any brand risk
• Guarantee that NOC communications internally are delivered accurately, timely and comprehensively providing key stakeholders the necessary information with both routine updates and high visibility reporting of irregular operations
• Make sure that United is utilizing advanced technologies to improve customer experience, and maximize return on technology investment
• Ensure leadership continuity plan within a 24/7 customer experience environment
• Set clear expectations for team leaders and consistently deliver caring service, putting forth quality assurance measures to ensure best in class practices for customer facing roles
• Direct all activities to achieve best in class Customer Experience across customer recovery teams including Global Customer Solutions, Operations Communications, and Social Care
• Responsible for the development and performance of 50+ team members at the NOC
• Develop expert knowledge of United product offerings/programs
• Monitor recovery team performance, and initiate actions or changes to improve results supporting continuous improvement objectives
• Ability to work through continuous improvement by viewing existing processes and programs through a strategic and innovative lens and leveraging relationships with our digital and technology partners to implement change.
• Implementation of corporate defined policies & procedures, including appropriate training and communication to front line staff
• Establish and maintain appropriate working relationships with employees and counterparts in legal, public relations, social media intelligence, corporate security, legal and other teams

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• life
• accident & disability
• parental leave
• employee assistance program
• commuter
• paid holidays
• paid time off
• 401(k)
• flight privileges

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees