Senior Analyst - Airline Distribution
IT, Operations
Chicago, IL, USA
USD 81,795-106,602 / year + Equity
Come join us to create what’s next. Let’s define tomorrow, together.
Description
Find your future at United! We’re reinventing what our industry looks like, and what an airline can be – from the planes we fly to the people who fly them. When you join us, you’re joining a global team of 100,000+ connected by a shared passion with a wide spectrum of experience and skills to lead the way forward.
Achieving our ambitions starts with supporting yours. Evolve your career and find your next opportunity. Get the care you need with industry-leading health plans and best-in-class programs to support your emotional, physical, and financial wellness. Expand your horizons with travel across the world’s biggest route network. Connect outside your team through employee-led Business Resource Groups.
Create what’s next with us. Let’s define tomorrow together.
Becoming the best airline is an adventure. And our Pricing & Revenue Management team is providing fuel for that journey by ensuring that we maximize our ticket revenue on every single flight across our network – both domestically and internationally – while giving our customers various product offerings for their travel. By analyzing market trends and forecasting consumer demand, this team works hard to ensure we are selling the right number of tickets at the right price to optimize our revenue and run a profitable airline.
Key Responsibilities:
The Senior Analyst - Airline Distribution supports the airline’s evolution toward modern, efficient, and accurate product distribution across all channels. The role contributes to the stewardship, configuration, and performance of core distribution systems to ensure products are accurately represented, consistently bookable, and enabled with modern retailing capabilities such as rich content, personalized offers, and API‑driven connections. They help execute the airline’s distribution strategy by designing and implementing requirements that modernize how products are delivered to travel agencies and partner platforms, including supporting NDC integrations and monitoring the performance of emerging retailing capabilities. By ensuring that PSS, GDS, and NDC technologies operate cohesively and with high integrity, the role strengthens operational stability while advancing commercial innovation and supporting the airline’s broader strategic objectives.
Lead distribution modernization and NDC implementation. Identify and pursue process and technology improvements by collaborating with stakeholders to enhance the travelers experience, optimize workflows, reduce costs, and support the adoption of emerging technologies. Design, evolve, and communicate requirements that modernize the airline’s product distribution capabilities, including supervising the end-to-end deployment, testing, and validation of NDC services and API based retailing. Ensure alignment with industry standards, integration with internal systems, and effective execution of the airline’s global distribution strategy.
Support PSS, GDS, and distribution system configuration, performance, and integrity. Serve as the subject matter expert for technical and functional issues across reservation, inventory, ticketing, and schedule systems. Provide technical and functional guidance to internal teams and industry partners. Manage configuration, stability, and data integrity to ensure accurate, consistent product representation and bookability across PSS, GDS, NDC, and downstream commercial and operational platforms.
Process partner integrations and global agency enablement. Administer technical onboarding for travel agencies, aggregators, and third-party sellers connecting to the airline’s APIs. Coordinate certification and testing activities, maintain integration documentation, and support partner adoption to expand modern distribution capabilities. Manage relationships and daily operations with GDS vendors and other distribution intermediaries.
Support cross functional coordination and operational support. Collaborate with our NDC vendor, digital technology, revenue management, sales, e commerce, operations, and legal teams to align system capabilities with business needs. Support change management, prepare documentation and status updates, and contribute to training and communication efforts for new workflows and distribution technologies.
Monitor distribution performance, data quality, and compliance. Track booking trends, error rates, NDC transaction behavior, and system performance across channels. Identify discrepancies between legacy and modern retailing flows, ensure compliance with IATA, ATPCO, ARC/BSP, and internal governance standards, and maintain audit trails for system and process changes.
Conduct analysis and reporting to support distribution strategy. Analyze NDC and GDS transaction data to identify trends, operational issues, and partner adoption levels. Produce recurring reports on channel performance, support business case development, and perform ad hoc analysis to evaluate cost, revenue, and strategic implications of distribution initiatives.
Manage financial auditing. Audit monthly distribution vendor invoices, validate BIDT based charges, reconcile discrepancies, process approved invoices, and provide expense summaries to support financial forecasting and governance.
Note: This is a Chicago based hybrid role, with in-office requirements 50% of the time.
Qualifications
What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):
- Bachelor's degree in Business, economics, information technology, engineering, airline commercial, operational, or a related field
- 2+ years in an analytical role
- Expertise with quantitative analysis tools and querying relational databases (SQL, SAS, R)
- Excellent analytical aptitude including ability to develop sound insights across multiple data sources
- Initiative, self-motivation and a strong sense of urgency
- Strong communication and analytical skills required
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and Power Point
- 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
-
4+ years in airline distribution, PSS/GDS operations, digital commerce, or travel tech system management
- Experience in NDC programs, API integrations, or digital retailing initiatives
- Certifications or training from GDS/PSS providers
- Project management experience
- Information technology experience
- Significant experience with online travel agencies, metasearch engines, and knowledge of corresponding data sources preferred
- Demonstrates an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative AI tools and effectively leverages them to support research, analysis, content creation, and problem-solving. Apply critical thinking to validate AI-generated outputs while adhering to organizational policies for responsible AI use, data privacy, and security.
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. 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 JobAccommodations@united.com to request accommodation.
The base pay range for this role is $81,795.00 to $106,602.00.
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