Lead Software Engineer

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 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.

At UnitedHealth Group and Optum, we want to make healthcare work better for everyone. This depends on hiring the best and brightest. With a thriving ecosystem of investment and innovation, our business in Ireland is constantly growing to support the healthcare needs of the future.  
Our teams are at the forefront of building and adapting the latest technologies to propel healthcare forward in a way that better serves everyone. With our hands at work across all aspects of health, we use the most advanced development tools, AI, data science, and 
innovative approaches to make the healthcare system work better for everyone.  

Optum Product Engineering Nexus (OPEN) are looking for a Lead Software Engineer - Tech Lead who shall implement and manage technical execution on the Azure cloud for a small set of commercial products. The focus for this position will be the development, 
implementation and maintenance of Cloud hosted commercial Products leveraging processed IoT. You should be familiar with data related products and compute choices in the public cloud eco-system and understand how best to secure and manage these services in a high availability environment. In addition to having an impact on a great Team, you'll also discover the career opportunities you'd expect from an 
industry leader. 

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, configure and manage Infrastructure on the Azure Cloud for utilisation by one or more products built by the OPEN team 
• Deliver and integrate features with upstream and backend dependencies 
• Fulfil the role of Tech Lead to service Product requirements 
• Provide guidance and mentorship to less experienced team members in relation to Software Engineering rigor
• Work alongside the Product, UI/UX and Architecture teams to design new features for the product 
• Ensure security and data compliance standards are established and enforced 
• Partner closely with your Technical Product Manager to define and shape the contents of each sprint iteration. 
• Stay current with emerging trends in Cloud technologies and evaluate their impact on our products 
• Utilize Enterprise approved AI Tools such as Claude Code to assist in your day-to-day development duties. 
• Build infrastructure using code (IaC) and repeatable designs. 
• Identify opportunities for improvement, optimize performance and scalability of existing Cloud solutions 
• Setup, maintain related documentation and standards, and facilitate knowledge distribution across the Teams. 
• Troubleshoot and debug complex technical issues, providing transparency and timely resolution to technical challenges 
• Prioritize and manage work to critical product development timelines in a fast-paced environment 
• Partner with internal dependent teams to design best practices and standards for integrated systems facilitating a shared Product solution
• Mentor and train junior members of the team
  
  

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or a related field or equivalent experience 
• Solid software product development experience on a public cloud ecosystem (AWS, Azure, GCP) ideally Azure
• Extensive hands-on experience developing Cloud solutions which demonstrate a solid understanding of software engineering principles  
• Experience with REST APIs, Java Spring Boot Microservices, Containerization (Images, Docker) 
• Excellent knowledge of a Public Cloud (Azu, AWS, GCP) Services such as - PaaS, FaaS, container orchestration (AKS), Workflow orchestrators, Service Principal, Containers, Secret management etc. 
• Experience of IaC using tools such as Terraform, Pulumi etc. 
• Solid programming experience with two or more languages (e.g Python, Java, Node) and scripting for automation (e.g., Bash, PowerShell)
• Understanding of cloud security principles and practices
• Demonstrable experience of AI-assisted software development, using AI tooling such as Claude (including agentic coding tools such as Claude Code) or equivalent as part of day-to-day engineering specifically code generation, refactoring, test creation, debugging and documentation
• Experience of reviewing, validating and taking ownership of AI-generated code, with a clear understanding of its limitations and of the quality, security and maintainability standards it must meet before release
• Ability to coach engineers in the effective and responsible use of AI tooling, and to set team standards and practices for its use
• Knowledge of data pipelines with an awareness of the importance of fault tolerance within the pipelines 
• Experience in using modern software engineering tooling (Github Actions, Sonar, Twist-Lock or alternatives etc.) and processing in terms of Agile delivery in a CI/CD work environment
• Excellent leadership qualities in terms of taking responsibility and communicating with clarity to collaborate effectively with team members and broader stakeholders
• Solid problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Excellent time management, communication, decision making, and presentation skills 
• Display a solid desire to achieve and attain high levels of both internal and external customer satisfaction 
• Solid experience of operating in an enterprise environment and contributing to technological innovation to meet business requirements
  
  Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands on experience of leveraging AI tooling as part of day-to-day development work

• Prior experience as a Tech/Team lead software engineer role (Note this role does not have people management responsibility) 

• Experience hands-on operations on large data volumes

• Prior experience of Enterprise delivery to a external customers in a B2B model

• Experience with databases, data warehousing, and big data technologies (e.g., Databricks, Spark, DBT, Snowflake)

• Experience of delivering software within an AI-Driven Development Lifecycle (AI-DLC), where AI agents produce plans, specifications, code and tests, and engineers provide context, validate outputs and approve decisions at defined points

• Familiarity with AI-DLC practices such as the Inception, Construction and Operations phases, short "bolt" delivery cycles, units of work, and collaborative mob elaboration and mob construction sessions

• Experience with spec-driven development, writing structured requirements and design context that AI agents can work from reliably

• Experience of embedding governance into AI-driven delivery, including human approval gates, auditability, and automated security and quality checks 

• Hands on experience of securing cloud applications

• Experience in the healthcare industry

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.

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. 

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.