Principal Data Engineer

Requisition Number: 2330923
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 diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
As a Principal Data Engineer on the Employer & Individual Affordability Data Engineering & Analytics team, you will lead the design, build, and evolution of data solutions that power affordability insights across the U.S. healthcare landscape. You will work at the intersection of engineering, analytics, and business strategy-building scalable, trusted data platforms and enabling advanced analytical and data science capabilities.
Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin or Letterkenny office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop a deep understanding of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem and its data complexity
• Lead the architecture, development, and delivery of high-quality data solutions that unlock actionable affordability insights
• Partner closely with business stakeholders, infrastructure, and data science teams to shape data requirements, roadmaps, and drive solution ideation
• Ensure data quality, accessibility, and security through solid engineering practices and collaboration with architects and data stewards
• Champion engineering standards, best practices, and continuous improvement across the data engineering function

You will be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role, as well as providing development for other roles you may be interested in.
Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, or equivalent experience
• Proven expertise in writing clean, maintainable, and efficient code (Python)
• Proven solid software engineering fundamentals, including systems design and architectural patterns
• Proven significant experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale data engineering solutions

Proven deep expertise in:

• Data modelling, data architecture, and complex data model design
• Advanced SQL (writing, tuning, and explaining complex queries)
• Large-scale data processing (PySpark or Snowpark)
• Workflow orchestration tools (Airflow or Azure Data Factory)
• Cloud-based analytics platforms (Azure Databricks)
• At least one major RDBMS (Snowflake)
• Version control and CI/CD processes (Git)
• Proven solid understanding of data governance and operating in a highly controlled environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven experience in platform engineering
• Proven experience with data analytics, and visualization tools
• Proven experience building data apps or internal tools with Streamlit
• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Kubernetes)

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.
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.
Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2025 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.