Senior Manager – Software Engineering

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.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight for the design, development, and deployment of a cloud‑based platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and performance aligned with business objectives
• Partner with senior business and technology stakeholders to shape platform strategy, translate business priorities into executable technical roadmaps, and drive alignment across teams
• Own technical governance and architectural direction, guiding decisions on technology selection, cloud infrastructure, integration patterns, and long‑term platform evolution
• Establish and institutionalize engineering standards, best practices, and quality frameworks that ensure consistency, maintainability, and operational excellence across multiple teams
• Lead and mentor engineering leaders and senior engineers, setting expectations for code quality, design rigor, and engineering discipline, and fostering a solid culture of accountability and continuous improvement
• Oversee and influence code review and design review practices, ensuring teams adhere to standards while balancing speed, quality, and innovation
• Drive cross‑functional collaboration with product management, UI/UX, security, and DevOps, ensuring the platform delivers seamless integration and a high‑quality end‑to‑end user experience
• Stay current on cloud, AI/ML, and platform engineering trends, proactively assessing their relevance and guiding adoption where they deliver measurable business value
• Own platform performance, reliability, and operational health at a leadership level, ensuring proactive monitoring, capacity planning, and optimization of cost and resource utilization
• Partner with DevOps, infrastructure, and security teams to ensure secure, compliant, and scalable deployment models, including observability, incident management, and production readiness
• Ensure teams operate in compliance with company policies, employment terms, security requirements, and evolving organizational directives, adapting structure, processes, and delivery models as business needs change
• Demonstrate solid executive presence and communication skills, clearly articulating complex technical concepts, trade‑offs, and recommendations to senior leadership and non‑technical stakeholders
• Build and sustain trusted relationships across the organization, effectively influencing without authority and driving alignment across diverse, cross‑functional teams
• Lead with empathy, emotional intelligence, and inclusivity, fostering a culture of psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous learning
• Navigate ambiguity and change with confidence, making informed decisions in complex environments while balancing speed, risk, and long‑term impact
• Coach, mentor, and develop engineering managers and senior engineers, providing clear feedback, career guidance, and growth opportunities to build leadership bench strength
• Demonstrate solid conflict management and negotiation skills, constructively resolving disagreements and aligning teams toward shared outcomes 
• Act as a role model for accountability, integrity, and resilience, setting the tone for high performance and ownership across the organization
• 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 regard 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:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles leading large, cross‑functional teams
• Hands‑on experience with cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, DevOps, observability, incident management, and production readiness
• Experience coaching, mentoring, and developing engineering leaders, managers, and senior engineers, with a track record of building solid leadership pipelines
• Proven leadership in designing, developing, and scaling cloud‑based platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), with deep understanding of cloud architecture, distributed systems, and high‑availability environments
• Solid expertise in platform engineering, microservices architecture, API design, integration frameworks, and modern development practices
• Demonstrated ability to set and enforce engineering standards, governance models, and best practices across multiple engineering teams
• Familiarity with AI/ML technologies, platform evolution trends, and ability to evaluate emerging technologies for business value
• Proven experience driving performance optimization, scalability planning, cost management, and operational excellence
• Solid understanding of security principles, compliance requirements, and secure‑by‑design engineering methodologies
• Solid executive presence with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to senior leadership and non‑technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated success in influencing without authority, building alignment across diverse global teams, and driving strategic initiatives
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to lead with empathy, inclusivity, and psychological safety, fostering a collaborative and high‑performance culture
• Solid decision‑making skills in ambiguous or rapidly changing environments; able to balance short‑term priorities with long‑term architectural vision
• Proven excellent conflict management and negotiation skills, with the ability to navigate complex situations and drive constructive outcomes
• Demonstrated accountability, resilience, and integrity, acting as a role model for engineering excellence and organizational values

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.

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