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.

We live in a time of unprecedented technical capability and possibility. Health care is at a pivotal point in this journey where even small gains can lead to major transformation. You could be a part of that - you have tremendous skill and the potential to make a lasting impact. Optum Insight Technology is uniquely positioned to bring your skills to bear on these pressing and life-changing technical challenges. The health care industry has an immediate need for your drive, innovation, passion and technical insight. Help us help the millions of people we serve each day. #OptumInsightTech

The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Engineering team, a unit within the Optum Insight Technology organization is responsible for building commercial products helping payers and providers with administrative and clinician focused CDS solutions.  We are seeking multiple Lead Software Engineers in multiple aspects of application and platform software development. This role will partner closely with Product Management, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, and ML teams to build AI/ML-driven applications. CDS is an area that truly touches payers, providers, as well as members and one where you can have a huge impact on improving the healthcare system for everyone.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Hands-On Delivery

• Lead technical design for epics/features; break down complex work into implementable increments and ensure delivery meets acceptance criteria and quality bars
• Remain hands-on building software in .NET and/or Python, contributing directly to critical services, pipelines, or UI components
• Influence engineering decisions across a team/domain, setting direction on architecture, patterns, and engineering standards while staying hands-on
• Mentor engineers through code/design reviews, pairing, and guidance on best practices in testing, performance, and operational readiness
• Demonstrate and utilize AI-based tools to improve the software development lifecycle

Engineering Excellence (Quality, Security, Operations)

• Champion secure engineering and proactively identify/close security gaps in solution design and delivery
• Build and operate production-grade services and pipelines with strong reliability practices (observability, diagnostics, incident response readiness)
• Drive CI/CD and automated testing practices to improve delivery velocity without sacrificing safety and compliance

Team Mentorship and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Mentor and guide engineers; help develop strong engineering habits through coaching, pairing, code review rigor, and design guidance
• Fully participate in Agile ceremonies (standups, refinement, planning, retrospectives) and improve team execution and predictability
• Partner with product, architecture, SRE, security, data/AI teams, and stakeholders to align technical implementation with platform goals
• Communicate tradeoffs clearly and raise risks early, ensuring shared understanding across distributed teams

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience (or equivalent depth of experience delivering production systems)
• 5+ years of development experience with .NET, JavaScript, and/or Python (one may be primary; the others can be working proficiency)
• 4+ years of professional experience in at least one specialty area (pick one):
  • Backend/API Engineering
  • Data engineering and Analytics
  • Front-end/web Engineering
• 3+ years of experience in relational databases (SQL)
• 3+ years of development and operational experience in the public cloud (Azure preferred)
• 2+ years of demonstrated ability to lead technical design and influence engineering decisions across a team/domain
• Comprehensive understanding of software engineering fundamentals: testing, CI/CD, secure coding, performance, and operational readiness

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in healthcare
• Expert understanding of engineering fundamentals: unit testing, code reviews, telemetry, agile and DevOps
• Hands-on experience leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Experience with microservices and event-driven architecture (APIs, messaging) supporting high-availability systems
• Experience designing secure, compliant systems in regulated environments; demonstrated security-minded engineering
• Data/AI platform experience (e.g., building or operating analytics/ML pipelines and/or data products that enable monitoring and trustworthy delivery of insights)
• Infrastructure as Code and cloud automation (e.g., Terraform) for repeatable environments

*All Telecommuters 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 $112,700 to $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. 

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.

#RPO #GREEN