Principal Architect - ServiceNow Platform

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Description

United's Digital Technology team is comprised of many talented individuals all working together with cutting-edge technology to build the best airline in the history of aviation. Our team designs, develops and maintains massively scaling technology solutions brought to life with innovative architectures, data analytics, and digital solutions.

Job Overview and Responsibilities

The Principal ServiceNow Platform Architect is the senior architecture authority for United’s ServiceNow environment, accountable for the platform architecture, solution design standards, technical guardrails, and long-term capability roadmap, including the ServiceNow AI and Agentic AI architecture strategy. This role provides architecture leadership across ServiceNow product areas and ensures solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, responsibly governed, and aligned with enterprise technology strategy. The role partners with business leaders, product owners, enterprise architects, Data & AI teams, engineering teams, and implementation partners to translate business needs into cohesive ServiceNow solutions that maximize out-of-box capabilities, reduce unnecessary customization, and support measurable business outcomes. The architect serves as a trusted advisor for complex initiatives and balances innovation, governance, platform integrity, responsible AI, and practical delivery.

• Define and maintain the ServiceNow platform architecture strategy and governance, including the ServiceNow AI and Agentic AI architecture strategy, reference architectures, technical standards, design patterns, architectural guardrails, responsible AI controls, model lifecycle standards, and decision frameworks that guide consistent solution design across ServiceNow product areas and enterprise integrations

• Lead solution architecture for complex ServiceNow initiatives by translating business requirements into scalable platform solutions, facilitating design workshops, assessing solution options, and guiding decisions on out-of-box capabilities, configuration, customization, integration, and platform placement

• Architect AI-driven workflow automation and autonomous remediation capabilities and define measures of business value, such as productivity, MTTR reduction, self-service containment, and automation rate

• Establish enterprise integration architecture for ServiceNow, including reusable integration patterns, API standards, IntegrationHub guidance, event-driven approaches, identity and access integration, data exchange principles, and alignment with enterprise architecture standards

• Partner with Data & AI teams on knowledge grounding, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enterprise search, observability, and telemetry integrations that enable trusted AI and AIOps capabilities

• Guide platform capability planning and adoption across ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, workflow, Now Assist, and AI Agents

• Lead adoption of AI capabilities across ITSM, ITOM, HR, and Employee Experience and drive AIOps and predictive operations using observability and telemetry platforms so capabilities evolve cohesively, deliver measurable value, and follow common architectural and responsible AI standards

• Mentor architects, developers, and platform teams and promote architecture discipline, technical excellence, standards adoption, responsible use of ServiceNow capabilities, and continuous improvement across internal teams and implementation partners

Qualifications

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or another computer-related field
• 5+ years of enterprise architecture, platform architecture, or solution architecture experience
• 5+ years of ServiceNow experience in large-scale, complex enterprise environments
• Experience designing solutions across multiple ServiceNow product families, including ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, workflow, AI, or Now Assist
• Experience defining enterprise AI or Agentic AI architecture, governance, responsible AI controls, model lifecycle standards, and adoption approaches for workflow platforms
• Experience with knowledge grounding, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enterprise search integrations, AIOps, predictive operations, observability and telemetry platforms, and measurement of AI-enabled business outcomes
• Experience leading cross-functional design decisions, technical workshops, solution reviews, and architecture decision documentation
• Deep knowledge of ServiceNow platform architecture, solution architecture, configuration, customization, workflow, integration, platform lifecycle practices, and associated customization trade-offs
• Demonstrated success establishing architecture standards, reusable design patterns, governance models, and architecture review practices
• Ability to create reference architectures, standards, design patterns, guardrails, architecture decision records, and executive-level architecture recommendations
• Strong understanding of enterprise integration patterns, APIs, IntegrationHub, event-driven design, identity and access integration, data exchange principles, and ServiceNow integration architecture
• Ability to translate business strategy and operational needs into scalable ServiceNow platform capabilities and architectural roadmaps
• Knowledge of ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, SAM, Service Catalog, Knowledge Management, Employee Center, HRSD, IRM, App Engine, automation, Now Assist, AI Agents, Agentic AI, AIOps, predictive operations, and AI-driven workflow and autonomous remediation capabilities
• Ability to establish responsible AI governance, model lifecycle controls, knowledge grounding, RAG, and enterprise search patterns in partnership with Data & AI, security, risk, and platform teams
• Ability to define and track AI adoption outcomes using measures such as productivity improvement, MTTR reduction, self-service containment, and automation rate
• Strategic thinking, facilitation, storytelling, and executive communication skills, with the ability to influence executive stakeholders, enterprise architects, product owners, engineers, implementation partners, business leaders, security partners, vendors, and cross-functional stakeholder groups
• Must be able to work a hybrid schedule (2-3 days in office) at our Houston or Chicago HQ
• 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):

• Master's degree in Computer Science
• 10+ years of enterprise architecture, platform architecture, or solution architecture experience
• 7+ years of ServiceNow experience in large-scale, complex enterprise environments
• Experience serving as a ServiceNow platform architect, domain architect, chief architect, or equivalent architecture leader in a global organization
• Experience with ServiceNow enterprise roadmap planning, platform governance, and multi-team delivery models
• Experience consulting on ServiceNow implementations and complex projects
• ServiceNow Certified Master Architect (CMA)
• ServiceNow Certified Technical Architect (CTA)
• ITIL 4 certification
• TOGAF, Zachman, Gartner, or an equivalent enterprise architecture certification

The base pay range for this role is $140,600.00 to $183,108.00.
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. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact JobAccommodations@united.com