Senior Data Engineer

Optum is a global organisation 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. 

About the role:

In healthcare, evolution doesn’t just happen. It takes innovation, imagination, and a passion for solving problems in new and better ways. And innovation is taking place at a lightning-fast pace every day at Optum. 
As the fastest growing part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, we’re expanding our team in Ireland and creating excellent opportunities for those who want greater purpose and more impact in their work. We’ll provide the investment, support, and resources to advance your career. You’ll provide the talent, ambition, and drive. 

As a Senior Data Engineer, you will be responsible for the development of complex data sources and pipelines into our data platform (i.e. Snowflake) along with other data applications (i.e. Azure, Airflow, etc.) and automation.  

The Senior Data Engineer will work closely with the data, Architecture, Business Analyst, Data Stewards to integrate and align requirements, specifications and constraints of each element of the requirement. They will also need to help identify gaps in resources, technology, or capabilities required, and work with the data engineering team to identify and implement solutions where appropriate.

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 and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model. 

 
Primary Responsibilities:

•    Integrate data from multiple on prem and cloud sources and systems. Handle data ingestion, transformation, and consolidation to create a unified and reliable data foundation for analysis and reporting.
•    Develop data transformation routines to clean, normalize, and aggregate data. Apply data processing techniques to handle complex data structures, handle missing or inconsistent data, and prepare the data for analysis, reporting, or machine learning tasks. 
•    Implement data de-identification/data masking in line with company standards. 
•    Monitor data pipelines and data systems to detect and resolve issues promptly.
•    Develop monitoring tools to automate error handling mechanisms to ensure data integrity and system reliability.
•    Utilize data quality tools like Great Expectations or Soda to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of data throughout its lifecycle.
•    Create & maintain data pipelines using Airflow & Snowflake as primary tools
•    Create SQL Stored procs to perform complex transformation 
•    Understand data requirements and design optimal pipelines to fulfil the use-cases
•    Creating logical & physical data models to ensure data integrity is maintained
•    CI CD pipeline creation & automation using GIT & GIT Actions
•    Tuning and optimizing data processes

You will be rewarded and recognised 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 Computer Science or a related field.
•    Proven hands-on experience as a Data Engineer.
•    Proficiency in SQL (any flavor), with experience using Window functions and advanced features.
•    Excellent communication skills.
•    Strong knowledge of Python.
•    In-depth knowledge of Snowflake architecture, features, and best practices.
•    Experience with CI/CD pipelines using Git and Git Actions.
•    Knowledge of various data modeling techniques, including Star Schema, Dimensional models, and Data Vault.
•    Hands-on experience developing data pipelines (Snowflake), writing complex SQL queries.
•    Experience building ETL/ELT/data pipelines.
•    Hands-on experience  with related/complementary open-source software platforms and languages (e.g., Scala, Python, Java, Linux).
•    Experience with both relational (RDBMS) and non-relational databases.
•    Analytical and problem-solving skills applied to big data datasets.
•    Experience working on projects with agile/scrum methodologies and high-performing teams.
•    Good understanding of access control, data masking, and row access policies.
•    Exposure to DevOps methodology.
•    Knowledge of data warehousing principles, architecture, and implementation.
 

Preferred Qualifications:

•    Bachelor’s degree or higher in Database Management, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
•    Motivated self-starter who excels at managing tasks independently and takes ownership.
•    Experience orchestrating data tasks in Airflow to run on Kubernetes for data ingestion, processing, and cleaning.
•    Expertise in designing and implementing data pipelines to process high volumes of data.
•    Ability to create Docker images for applications to run on Kubernetes 
•    Familiarity with Azure Services such as Blobs, Functions, Azure Data Factory, Service Principal, Containers, Key Vault, etc.

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.

All telecommuters will be required to adhere to the UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

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 marginalised 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.