Principal, Drug and Alcohol Compliance

Intro

Are you ready to explore a world of possibilities, both at work and during your time off? Join our American Airlines family, and you’ll travel the world, grow your expertise, and become the best version of you. As you embark on a new journey, you’ll tackle challenges with flexibility and grace, learning new skills and advancing your career while having the time of your life. Feel free to enrich both your personal and work life and hop onboard!

Why you'll love this job

The Principal, Drug and Alcohol Compliance serves as a senior subject-matter expert responsible for supporting American Airlines’ compliance with DOT, FAA, and FMCSA drug and alcohol requirements. This role translates regulatory requirements into scalable controls, analytics, and operational processes, leads complex compliance initiatives, and partners across the organization to strengthen safety, data integrity, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance.

What you'll do

This list is intended to reflect the current job but there may be additional essential functions (and certainly non-essential job functions) that are not referenced. Management will modify the job or require other tasks be performed whenever it is deemed appropriate to do so, observing, of course, any legal obligations including any collective bargaining obligations.

• Serve as a senior technical subject-matter expert for DOT, FAA, and FMCSA drug and alcohol requirements, translating regulations into operational controls and scalable compliance processes.
• Lead the administration and analysis of DOT random testing pools, ensuring accurate population management, selection integrity, reconciliation, and adherence to required testing rates.
• Oversee the 49 CFR 40.25 process, ensuring timely and accurate verification of prior drug and alcohol testing history for regulated hires, including monitoring timeliness, exceptions, and data quality.
• Manage contractor performance, including monitoring service levels, auditing compliance, and driving corrective actions when needed.
• Conduct continuous auditing and data-quality monitoring of regulated team-member populations to ensure proper identification, tracking, and testing throughout hiring, transfers, and job changes.
• Partner with the People Team, Operations, Legal, Safety, and technology/data partners to ensure consistent application of regulatory requirements and reliable compliance data across the organization.
• Develop and maintain documentation, standard operating procedures, dashboards, key metrics, exception reporting, and compliance records to support program decisions and internal and external audits.
• Lead complex cross-functional compliance projects and process or system improvements from requirements and risk assessment through implementation, testing, change management, and sustainment.
• Provide subject-matter expertise and analytical support during regulatory inspections, internal investigations, and compliance reviews.
• Identify process and control risks and implement improvements that strengthen program defensibility, data integrity, audit readiness, and operational efficiency.

All you'll need for success

Minimum Qualifications – Education & Prior Job Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, compliance, safety, human resources, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 5 years of experience in DOT drug and alcohol compliance, aviation regulatory compliance, or a similar high-risk compliance environment
• Strong knowledge of DOT/FAA/FMCSA drug and alcohol testing requirements, including 49 CFR Part 40, 14 CFR Part 120, and 49 CFR Part 382, as applicable
• Demonstrated experience managing complex compliance programs with high accuracy and attention to detail
• Experience working with HRIS, compliance systems, or testing program management tools

Preferred Qualifications – Education & Prior Job Experience

• Experience in airline operations, safety, or regulatory affairs
• Prior experience administering random testing pools or regulated population management
• Familiarity with contractor oversight and vendor performance management
• Experience using data analytics, dashboards, metrics, and exception reporting to identify compliance risk, trends, and process gaps
• Experience leading cross-functional projects, process redesign, or compliance system implementations in a regulated environment
• Strong communication and project leadership skills with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and drive cross-functional work to completion

Skills, Licenses, and Certifications

• Expert knowledge of DOT/FAA/FMCSA drug and alcohol regulations and the ability to translate requirements into operational controls
• Strong data analytics, auditing, project management, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage sensitive information with discretion and professionalism
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment

What you'll get

Feel free to take advantage of all that American Airlines has to offer:

• Travel Perks: Ready to explore the world? You, your family, and your friends can reach 365 destinations on more than 6,800 daily flights across our global network.
• Health Benefits: On day one, you’ll have access to your health, dental, prescription and vision benefits to help you stay well. And that’s just the start, we also offer virtual doctor visits, flexible spending accounts and more.
• Wellness Programs: We want you to be the best version of yourself – that’s why our wellness programs provide you with all the right tools, resources and support you need.
• 401(k) Program: Available upon hire and, depending on the workgroup, employer contributions to your 401(k) program are available after one year.
• Additional Benefits: Other great benefits include our Member Assistance Program, pet insurance and discounts on hotels, cars, cruises and more.

Feel free to be yourself at American

From the team members we hire to the customers we serve, inclusion and diversity are the foundation of the dynamic workforce at American Airlines. Our 20 Team Member Resource Groups are focused on connecting our team members to our customers, suppliers, communities, and shareholders, helping team members reach their full potential and creating an inclusive work environment to meet and exceed the needs of our diverse world.

Are you ready to feel a tremendous sense of pride and satisfaction as you do your part to keep the largest airline in the world running smoothly as we care for people on life’s journey? Feel free to be yourself at American.