Principal Data Engineer

Requisition Number: 2395227
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.
Functions may include database architecture, engineering, design, optimization, security, and administration; as well as data modeling, big data development, Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) development, storage engineering, data warehousing, data provisioning and other similar roles. Responsibilities may include Platform-as-a-Service and Cloud solution with a focus on data stores and associated eco systems. Duties may include management of design services, providing sizing and configuration assistance, ensuring strict data quality, and performing needs assessments. Analyzes current business practices, processes and procedures as well as identifying future business opportunities for leveraging data storage and retrieval system capabilities. Manages relationships with software and hardware vendors to understand the potential architectural impact of different vendor strategies and data acquisition. May design schemas, write SQL or other data markup scripting and helps to support development of Analytics and Applications that build on top of data. Selects, develops and evaluates personnel to ensure the efficient operation of the function.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of scalable, secure, and high-performance data platforms, pipelines, and data products supporting enterprise analytics, reporting, and AI/ML initiatives
• Define data architecture standards, engineering best practices, and governance frameworks to ensure data quality, reliability, lineage, and regulatory compliance
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product teams, data scientists, architects, and technology leaders to translate complex business requirements into robust technical solutions
• Drive cloud data modernization initiatives leveraging platforms such as Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, and distributed processing technologies
• Establish CI/CD, DataOps, monitoring, observability, and automation practices to improve operational efficiency and platform reliability
• Provide technical leadership for enterprise-wide data integration, metadata management, semantic layer, and data product initiatives
• Mentor and guide engineering teams, conduct design reviews, and promote innovation and continuous improvement
• Evaluate emerging technologies and develop strategic roadmaps that align data engineering capabilities with organizational objectives
• Reviews the work of others
• Develops innovative approaches
• Sought out as expert
• Serves as a leader/ mentor
• Comply with all applicable Company policies, procedures, and business directives, changes including those relating to work location, team assignments, work schedules, and flexible work arrangements.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related technical discipline
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, data warehousing, or large-scale information management environments
• Experience building enterprise-scale analytics, reporting, AI/ML, and data product solutions supporting business-critical operations
• Demonstrated expertise in cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, with solid hands-on experience in Databricks, Spark, SQL, Python, and modern ELT/ETL frameworks
• Solid understanding of dimensional modeling, data lakes, lakehouses, semantic layers, metadata management, lineage, master data management, and data governance principles
• Solid knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD, infrastructure automation, security, and performance optimization practices
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives, influence architecture decisions, and drive cross-functional collaboration
• Proven excellent communication, stakeholder management, problem-solving, and leadership skills with experience mentoring and developing high-performing engineering teams

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.