Principal Architect

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:

• As a member of the architecture leadership team, this role will partner closely with product and technology executives to define portfolio‑level technology strategy and deliver solutions that advance business objectives
• This role provides architectural leadership across a complex product ecosystem, driving alignment with enterprise standards and leading teams toward a unified technology direction
• Shaping high‑level cross‑product and cross‑platform architectures, ensuring adherence to portfolio and enterprise initiatives such as security, modernization, and platform excellence, and mentoring architecture and engineering teams to foster an AI‑first mindset
• The leader will guide teams in adopting best practices, maturing engineering and design standards, and ensuring architectural consistency across initiatives
• As a senior influencer in the architecture community, this role champions innovation, elevates architectural rigor, and connects strategic business vision to actionable, scalable solutions that support long‑range portfolio evolution and technical excellence
• 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 regards 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:

• Undergraduate degree in applicable area of expertise or equivalent experience
• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• 15+ years in software industry or related industry
• 7+ years of experience in software solution architecture, with a focus on AI/ML systems
• 1+ years of experience designing agentic workflows or autonomous systems
• Experience architecting scalable platforms and microservices, including RESTful API design and cloud-native development
• Experience integrating AI solutions into existing enterprise systems while ensuring alignment with evolving architecture standards
• Experience deploying AI models in high-throughput, low-latency environments
• Understanding of AI/ML concepts GenAI, multi-agent orchestration, MCP and A2A
• Understanding of ethical AI principles and responsible AI design
• Familiarity with MLOps tools for deploying and managing models in production
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and data integration tools
• Proven ability to define and communicate architectural vision and strategy across cross-functional 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.