Senior Emerging Trends Advisor

As a Senior Emerging Trends Advisor supporting the Emerging Trends Team, you'll serve as a trusted, enterprise-wide advisor helping Southwest stay informed on what's next by identifying, researching, and translating emerging technologies, startups, business models, and market signals into clear, actionable insights. You'll build strong relationships and partner closely with Senior Leaders to connect external innovation to real business challenges, assess both near- and long-term applicability, and recommend targeted areas for experimentation that support enterprise strategy, reduce uncertainty, and guide informed decisions on future exploration, investment, and adoption.

Additional Details

• This role allows for voluntary remote work for the majority of your working time within the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with occasional on-site presence at our Corporate Campus for training, meetings, and business needs. This role may also require limited travel for business purposes.

• U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S. required and no current or future work authorization sponsorship available.

We're committed to fair hiring practices and to making employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other legally protected characteristics.

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders to understand strategic priorities, business challenges, and unmet needs to help shape areas for exploration

• Evaluate emerging trends, technologies, and business models to identify opportunities relevant to organizational strategy and operations

• Analyze external market developments and translate signals into actionable insights and recommendations for stakeholders

• Build and maintain relationships across the innovation ecosystem, including startups, partners, vendors, and industry communities

• Represent the organization externally through industry engagement, ecosystem partnerships, and innovation networks

• Provide thought leadership and guidance to members of the Emerging Trends team to elevate quality of research, insights, and storytelling

• Develop and deliver clear written materials and presentations to communicate emerging opportunities and insights to stakeholders

• Advise stakeholders across the organization on emerging solutions and approaches that may address business challenges

• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of innovation practices and the open innovation ecosystem, including how startups, venture networks, and industry partners engage with enterprises

• Knowledge of emerging technology and market trends and how these developments can influence business models and operational capabilities

• Skilled in researching, synthesizing, and interpreting complex information from multiple sources to identify meaningful insights

• Skilled in developing executive-level presentations, reports, and other materials that clearly communicate complex ideas

• Skilled in translating external trends and signals into practical insights and recommendations for stakeholders

• Ability to demonstrate a naturally curious mindset by proactively exploring emerging trends, technologies, and ideas across industries to identify potential opportunities

• Ability to engage and build relationships across external innovation ecosystems and industry networks

• Ability to advise stakeholders and leaders on emerging opportunities and potential solutions to business challenges

• Ability to influence stakeholders through clear communication and well-supported insights

• Ability to mentor and guide team members while elevating the quality of thinking and outputs across the team

Education

• Required: High School Diploma or GED

Experience

• Innovator level experience, highest level of knowledge in:

  • Innovation

  • Technology and/or Transformation

  • POCs, Product Testing, and/or Prototyping

Licensing/Certification

• N/A

Physical Abilities

• Ability to perform work duties from [limited space work station/desk/office area] for extended periods of time

• Ability to communicate and interact with others in the English language to meet the demands of the job

• Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools with sufficient speed and accuracy to meet the demands of the job

Other Qualifications

• 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

Pay & Benefits

• Competitive market salary from $168,650 per year to $187,400 per year* depending on qualifications and experience. For eligible Leadership and individual contributor roles, additional bonus opportunities are available and awarded at the discretion of the company.

Benefits you'll love

• 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.

• Explore more Benefits you'll love: https://careers.southwestair.com/benefits

*Pay amount does not guarantee employment for any particular period of time.

**401(k) match contributions are subject to the plan's vesting schedule and applicable IRS limits

***ProfitSharing contributions are subject to plan's vesting schedule and are made at the discretion of the Company