At UnitedHealthcare, we're simplifying the health care experience, creating healthier communities and removing barriers to quality care. The work you do here impacts the lives of millions of people for the better. Come build the health care system of tomorrow, making it more responsive, affordable and optimized. Ready to make a difference? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together
The Senior Engineer partners with technical and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, supportable data pipelines and data products that meet enterprise needs. The position provides technical leadership for platform modernization, drives adoption of reusable engineering patterns and standards, and helps shift delivery from fragmented ownership to a more centralized and sustainable model. It is expected to influence architectural direction, reduce operational complexity, and improve the speed, quality, and reliability of data delivery across teams.
Positions in this function design, build, and operationalize data engineering solutions that enable enterprise analytics, reporting, and data product delivery. The role is responsible for modernizing legacy ETL pipelines, improving data quality and reliability, and establishing secure, scalable patterns for data movement and transformation. Success in this position requires solid architectural judgment, disciplined engineering practices, and the ability to advance cloud-based and automation-driven solutions that improve consistency, resilience, and delivery efficiency across the organization.
Job Scope and Guidelines:
- Operates independently in a complex, Agile, matrixed environment with minimal oversight
- Leads design and implementation of reusable data pipeline frameworks and engineering patterns
- Establishes standards across ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and operational support
- Ensures solutions are scalable, secure, reliable, and aligned with governance requirements
- Translates business needs into practical engineering solutions with clear operational value
- Provides leadership during production incidents, troubleshooting, and root cause resolution
- Drives continuous improvement through automation, standardization, and simplification
You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Data Engineering and Platform Modernization
- Lead modernization of legacy ETL solutions to cloud-based architectures using platforms such as ADF and Snowflake
- Design and scale reusable ingestion, transformation, and orchestration frameworks that improve maintainability and delivery consistency
- Deliver high-quality data pipelines and products that align with business priorities and enable trusted analytics and reporting
- Ensure solutions are well documented, supportable, and consumable by downstream users and engineering partners
- Establish consistent delivery patterns that improve usability, reduce rework, and accelerate time to value
- Engineering Standards and Technical Leadership
- Promote best practices in data engineering, ETL development, and data modeling across the delivery lifecycle
- Influence architectural decisions and drive adoption of engineering standards across teams and initiatives
- Act as a technical multiplier by coaching others, improving reusable practices, and raising overall engineering maturity
- Build resilient data pipelines with effective monitoring, alerting, and recoverability
- Support production stability through incident response, root cause analysis, and durable corrective actions
- Reduce operational burden by automating repetitive tasks and improving platform supportability
- Security, Governance, and Compliance
- Align to enterprise security and governance standards
- Apply role-based access and data protection
- Support compliant handling of sensitive data
- AI-Enabled Engineering
- Apply AI-assisted tooling and automation where it improves engineering productivity, code quality, or operational efficiency
- Identify practical opportunities to accelerate development, testing, analysis, and support workflows through responsible AI usage
Functional Competencies
- Solid command of data engineering principles, architecture patterns, and platform tradeoff decisions
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and make sound technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and risk
- Demonstrates sound judgment across design, operations, governance, and support considerations
- Builds solid working partnerships across engineering, analytics, and business stakeholders
- Influences outcomes through technical credibility, collaboration, and clear communication
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:
- 6+ years of experience in data engineering or enterprise data platforms
- Experience modernizing legacy ETL to cloud-based solutions
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
- Experience with regulated or sensitive data environments
- Experience using AI-assisted tooling or automation
- Solid SQL-based transformation and data modeling experience
- Solid production support and troubleshooting experience
- Advanced expertise in Azure Data Factory (ADF)
- Advanced expertise in Snowflake
- Proven ability to independently lead complex technical initiatives
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience supporting healthcare, claims, or other highly regulated data domains
- Experience building reusable frameworks, accelerators, or shared engineering capabilities across teams
- Familiarity with platform operating models, federated delivery models, or centralized engineering standards
- Exposure to practical AI-enabled engineering workflows that improve development or operational efficiency
*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy
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 $91,700 to $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.
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.
Skills Required
- 6+ years of experience in data engineering or enterprise data platforms
- Experience modernizing legacy ETL to cloud-based solutions
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
- Experience with regulated or sensitive data environments
- Experience using AI-assisted tooling or automation
- Solid SQL-based transformation and data modeling experience
- Solid production support and troubleshooting experience
- Advanced expertise in Azure Data Factory (ADF)
- Advanced expertise in Snowflake
- Proven ability to independently lead complex technical initiatives
- Experience supporting healthcare, claims, or other highly regulated data domains
- Experience building reusable frameworks, accelerators, or shared engineering capabilities across teams
- Familiarity with platform operating models, federated delivery models, or centralized engineering standards
- Exposure to practical AI-enabled engineering workflows that improve development or operational efficiency
Optum Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage offers copay and HSA medical options with dental, vision, company‑paid life and disability, and free or low‑cost virtual visits. Feedback suggests the offering is comprehensive and competitive on paper.
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Parental & Family Support — Time off and family supports include PTO, eight paid holidays plus a floating day, six weeks paid parental leave, up to two weeks paid caregiver leave, Bright Horizons back‑up care, and adoption assistance up to $10,000. Feedback suggests these resources are meaningful for caregivers and family needs.
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Retirement Support — Savings programs include a 401(k) with employer match (after one year, vesting after two) and a 10%‑discount Employee Stock Purchase Plan. These programs bolster long‑term financial security when combined with other savings resources.
Optum Insights
What We Do
Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, 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. At Optum, we support your well-being with an understanding team, extensive benefits and rewarding opportunities. By joining us, you’ll have the resources to drive system transformation while we help you take care of your future. We recognize the power of connection to drive change, improve efficiency and make a difference in health care. Join a team where your skills and ideas can make an impact and where collaboration is key to creating technology that produces healthier outcomes.
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Optum Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Optum has three workplace models that balance the needs of the business and the responsibilities of each role. These models, core on‑site (5 days/week), hybrid (4 days/week) and telecommute or fully remote, vary by country, role and location.