Quality Engineering Director

Requisition Number: 2341974
Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
As the Quality Engineering Director, you will define and execute the vision for quality across the entire Operations and Experience Claims organization. You will be responsible for creating and implementing the overarching test and automation strategy, establishing robust governance, and cultivating a world-class "quality-first" culture. This is a leadership role for a seasoned expert who can develop managers, set enterprise-wide technical direction, influence C-level stakeholders, and ensure our solutions deliver unparalleled performance, business impact, and user experience.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Define, own, and drive the enterprise-wide quality engineering strategy for Healthcare Payer Claims systems, ensuring alignment with corporate-level business objectives, user experience, and performance goals
• Lead, mentor, and grow the entire quality engineering organization, including managers and senior individual contributors, while also owning departmental budgeting and resource strategy
• Oversee the architecture and establish governance for advanced, reusable test automation frameworks to be used across the enterprise
• Champion and embed modern practices, including CICD, DevOps, and ATDD, at scale to accelerate delivery and drive a culture of continuous improvement
• Define quality strategies for large scale claims test data management, including synthetic data, masked production data, and scenario based datasets that reflect real world claims complexity
• Research emerging trends, including AI/ML and open-source tooling, and build business cases for strategic investments to drive long-term innovation and efficiency
• Present and communicate strategy, quality posture, and ROI to executive leadership, translating complex technical concepts and risks into clear business impact
• Establish a governance framework for enterprise-wide quality risk management, guiding teams in assessment and ensuring major risks are visible and mitigated at the portfolio level
• Establish and govern robust strategies for test data management and the provisioning of test environments to ensure consistency and compliance across the organization
• Own and direct the enterprise quality audit program, reporting on findings and driving systemic improvements based on the results
• Establish the governance and reporting models to ensure all solutions adhere to established quality control guidelines and industry compliance standards (e.g., SOX, HIPAA, CMMI)
• Provide strategic guidance during PI Planning and other key ceremonies to ensure quality is a foundational component of all major initiatives
• Develop and champion the instrumentation and diagnostics required to report on the business value and ROI of the CICD pipeline and automation efforts to executive leadership
• Act as the senior consultant and thought leader for quality across the organization, providing expertise and strategic analysis throughout the entire product lifecycle

You'll 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 provide development for other roles you may be interested in.
Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering and a proven track record of increasing responsibility and strategic impact
• 6+ years of experience designing and leading scalable test automation strategies, ideally within complex, rules driven, high volume transaction systems
• 4+ years in a leadership role, with direct experience managing managers and leading a multi-tiered engineering organization
• 4+ years of experience supporting Healthcare Payer and Claims systems
• Experience establishing governance, managing risk, and analyzing complex technical interdependencies across a portfolio of systems
• Proven expert knowledge of the SDLC, STLC, and Agile methodologies, with experience driving scaled Agile practices across a large organization
• Demonstrated deep technical background in software development and automation, with extensive experience in modern automation tools and frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright)
• Proven deep understanding of DevOps, CICD, and experience leading the implementation of automation within continuous delivery pipelines at an enterprise scale
• Experience working with large datasets, complex business rules, and downstream financial systems, ensuring accuracy and traceability across the claims lifecycle
• Proven exceptional executive communication and presentation skills, with proven experience in regularly reporting on quality metrics, strategic progress, and risk management to senior leadership

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience
• Experience supporting core administrative platforms (e.g., Facets, QNXT, HealthRules, or similar)

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $134,600 to $230,800 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
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.
UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.
UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.