Sr Software Engineer

Southwest Airlines • Dallas, TX

10d • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Sr Software Engineer, you’ll play a key role in shaping the technology that drives Southwest’s core revenue systems—building AI‑powered capabilities that influence how we price, sell, and serve our Customers. You’ll lead the design and development of large‑scale, cloud‑based solutions, partnering with Product and Engineering Teams to turn complex ideas into reliable, high‑impact features. In this role, you’ll set technical direction, mentor engineers, and ensure solutions are scalable, secure, and built with quality from the start through a strong “shift left” mindset. Working at the intersection of AI, platform engineering, and revenue strategy, you’ll help deliver innovative solutions that improve speed to market, increase efficiency, and enhance the Customer Experience. Your work won’t just support systems—it will directly influence Southwest’s ability to compete, grow, and evolve by bringing advanced technology into the heart of the business.

Requirements

• Advanced knowledge of software development methodologies, practices, concepts, and technologies obtained through formal training and / or work experience
• Proactively shares knowledge and skills of software development and testing to solve a range of problems
• Advanced knowledge of at least one required programming language
• Excellent partnering, communication, negotiation skills, and execution in working with various Technology or partner Teams
• Ability to articulate (verbally / visually) ideas, approach, concepts, options, risk, impact, and provides guidance to technical, non-technical, and Leadership audiences
• Ability to lead multiple assignments, whether administrative or project related, while maintaining a successful level of completion in all responsible work
• Ability to mentor others
• Ability to lead ideating, presentations, mentoring and group-thinking sessions
• Ability to influence without authority
• High School Diploma or GED
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information systems or similar fields of study or equivalent advanced level experience
• Advanced-level experience, seasoned and specialized knowledge in software development and methodologies
• 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

Nice To Haves

• Experience building and scaling AI/GenAI‑powered applications in production, including strong familiarity with LLMs and prompt engineering
• Experience integrating AI services into scalable, reliable enterprise systems, supported by knowledge of data pipelines and large‑scale data processing
• Experience with cloud environments and architectures, particularly AWS (including serverless and containerized services such as Lambda and ECS)
• Experience developing within API‑driven and event‑based architectures (e.g., REST, Kafka, SNS/SQS)
• Experience with modern software engineering practices, including Java development and CI/CD pipelines

Responsibilities

• Drive the technical direction and feature roadmap of large-scale cloud systems
• Serve as a technical lead contributing to and directing the efforts of development teams, including internal and external team members
• Determines operational feasibility by evaluating analysis, problem definition, requirements, solution development, and proposed solutions
• Drives detailed definition of feature requirements through discussions with product managers and customers
• Supports continuous improvement by investigating alternatives and new technologies
• Prepares and installs solutions by determining and designing system specifications, standards, and programming
• Evaluates code to ensure that it is valid, is properly structured, meets industry standards, and is compatible with browsers, devices, or operating systems
• Mentor Software Engineers to allow for skill/knowledge development through advice, coaching, and training opportunities
• Update job knowledge by studying state-of-the-art development tools, programming techniques and computing equipment; participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations
• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

Benefits

• 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 with Company contributions up to 9.3% of your eligible earnings
• Potential for annual ProfitSharing contribution in the Southwest Retirement Savings Plan- when Southwest profits, you profit
• Competitive health insurance for you and your eligible dependents (including pets)
• Southwest offers health plan coverage options that start from the very first day of employment.
• You will have 30 days to select and enroll in your health plan with coverage retroactively available to your first day of employment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior