Principal Software Engineer

Requisition Number: 2372875
Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
The Senior Tech Lead will work closely with product managers, architects, engineers, QA, DevOps, security, and business stakeholders to translate business needs into high-quality technical solutions. The ideal candidate has solid experience in cloud-based application development, modern software engineering practices, data architecture, system integration, and emerging AI/ML capabilities.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the technical design, architecture, and implementation of enterprise applications and platforms
• Provide hands-on technical guidance for cloud-native solutions, preferably using Microsoft Azure
• Design and support scalable microservices, APIs, system integrations, and distributed application architectures
• Collaborate with business and product stakeholders to translate requirements into effective technical solutions
• Define and enforce engineering best practices, including system design, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, and production support
• Guide the development of secure, reliable, and maintainable software systems
• Support data architecture decisions involving SQL, NoSQL, data lakes, data pipelines, and integration patterns
• Apply AI/ML knowledge to support solution design involving model training, evaluation, deployment, inference, data pipelines, and responsible AI practices
• Partner with DevOps and security teams to ensure cloud security, governance, compliance, observability, and operational readiness
• Mentor engineers, provide technical direction, and help raise engineering standards across the team
• Lead technical discussions, resolve complex engineering challenges, and support delivery planning in Agile/Scrum environments
• Work cross-functionally with product managers, designers, QA, DevOps, security, and business teams to deliver high-quality solutions
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, architecture, or enterprise application development; cloud experience preferred
• Experience designing and building microservices, APIs, and enterprise integration solutions
• Experience with data architecture, including SQL, NoSQL, data lakes, and system integration patterns
• Hands-on experience with modern software development practices, including system design, code reviews, testing, CI/CD, and production support
• Experience with Agile/Scrum or similar delivery methodologies
• Experience translating business requirements into technical solutions
• Knowledge of cloud security, governance, and compliance standards
• Solid expertise in cloud platforms, with Azure preferred
• Solid understanding of AI/ML concepts, including model training, evaluation, deployment, inference, data pipelines, and responsible AI practices
• Proven solid problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to design scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable software systems
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, provide technical direction, and improve engineering practices across a team
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with product, design, QA, DevOps, security, and business stakeholders
• Key Competencies:
  • Ownership of delivery quality, reliability, security, and maintainability
  • Technical leadership and architectural decision-making
  • Cloud-native application design and delivery
  • Enterprise integration and data architecture
  • AI/ML awareness and responsible AI practices
  • Engineering mentorship and team enablement
  • Solid communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone-of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income-deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.