Senior Cloud Data Engineer - Remote

Optum Insight is improving the flow of health data and information to create a more connected system. We remove friction and drive alignment between care providers and payers, and ultimately consumers. Our deep expertise in the industry and innovative technology empower us to help organizations reduce costs while improving risk management, quality and revenue growth. Ready to help us deliver results that improve lives? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Optum Advisory Services operates on the intersection of strategy, business operations, data and technology to help our clients realize exceptional business value.  We harness data and technology and use them to reimagine business transformations to design and architect solutions that help realize exceptional value for our clients.  We are uniquely positioned to accelerate the value proposition for our clients across the healthcare ecosystem with our unwavering focus on making health system work better for everyone.

The Senior Cloud Data Engineer will be a key technical resource during the solution implementation of cloud-centric data management architecture. The primary role of the Senior Cloud Data Engineer is to take the design and technical specifications and develop effective and high-quality technical solutions that meet business requirements. The technical domain of the Cloud Data Engineer includes understanding Data Acquisition/Integration (DA/DI) best practices, tools and technologies, security in the environment, understanding of different data warehousing and dimensional modelling concepts, DI development, performance tuning and support system testing.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Cloud Data Engineer to support large-scale Cloud Data Modernization initiatives. The successful candidate will lead the migration and modernization of legacy data platforms, ETL/ELT processes, and enterprise data warehouses to cloud-native solutions leveraging Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, and modern data engineering practices.  This role combines hands-on engineering, technical leadership, and solution implementation responsibilities to deliver scalable, secure, high-quality cloud data platforms that support analytics, reporting, and operational workloads.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

Cloud Data Modernization 

• Provide technical leadership in design and engineering for the modernization of legacy data platforms, ETL/ELT processes, and enterprise data warehouses to new technologies in the Public Cloud (AWS/Azure)
• Review and analyze existing SSIS, SQL Server, and legacy ETL implementations and develop modernization strategies
• Design, develop, and implement cloud-native data solutions utilizing Azure Data Factory (ADF), Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2), Snowflake, Databricks, Azure cloud services

Data Engineering & Integration 

• Design and develop scalable ETL/ELT pipelines supporting batch and streaming workloads
• Create source-to-target mappings and implement data ingestion frameworks supporting structured and unstructured data
• Build and optimize cloud data warehouses, data marts, and lakehouse architectures
• Implement full and incremental load patterns, change data capture (CDC), and automated data validation processes
• Perform data profiling, data quality assessment, and root cause analysis for data issues
• Create Process Flows using diagraming tools like Visio
• Automate pipeline processes using scheduling tools like AirFlow
• Conduct ETL/ELT unit testing; participate in system and integration testing; identify and remedy solution defects

Data Architecture & Modeling 

• Design and implement enterprise data warehouse solutions utilizing dimensional modeling concepts including Star schemas, Snowflake schemas, Fact and dimension design, Data pipeline architectures 
• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into scalable solutions

Cloud Security & Governance 

• Implement appropriate data security, privacy, governance, and compliance controls
• Ensure compliance with organizational standards for data protection, auditability, and data quality
• Establish data lineage, monitoring, and operational support processes

DevOps & Delivery 

• Implement CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices using GitHub Actions and other modern delivery tools
• Support Agile software delivery practices and contribute across the full development lifecycle, including: Requirements, Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Production support

Leadership & Collaboration 

• Provide technical leadership for cloud data engineering initiatives
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to engineering best practices
• Collaborate effectively in matrixed environments with business stakeholders, architects, analysts, developers, and project teams
• Proactively identify implementation risks, constraints, and improvement opportunities
• Self-driven, ownership mindset to navigate ambiguity, identify options to resolve constraints, mitigate implementation risks and define solutions to implementation challenges with minimal supervision
• Build partnership and rapport with client technical resources by demonstrating solid written and verbal communication, presentation, analytical and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work closely with Business Analysts and SMEs to understand business requirements
• Ability to work in a matrixed team environment with distributed responsibility across different teams
• Proactive and diligent in identifying and communicating scope, design, development issues and recommending potential solutions

You'll be rewarded and recognized 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 provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in designing, developing, and implementing enterprise data warehouse and analytics solutions on prem and on cloud
• 3+ years of hands-on cloud data engineering experience utilizing Azure cloud technologies
• 3+ years of experience working as part of data engineering teams, including offshore teams, through a product life cycle - requirements, design, development, testing and deployment
• Hands-on experience with AI-enabled data engineering tools such as Databricks Genie, GitHub Copilot, Snowflake Cortex, LLMs, prompt engineering
• Experience designing and implementing healthcare data and analytics solutions, including large-scale cloud data modernization, data warehouse migration, and platform transformation initiatives
• Experience implementing CI/CD and DevOps practices using GitHub and GitHub Actions
• Experience working within Agile delivery methodologies
• Solid experience with Azure Data Factory (ADF), Databricks, Snowflake, ADLS Gen2, SQL Server, Python, Spark/Pyspark, ETL/ELT development
• Solid understanding of data warehousing concepts, dimensional modeling, data quality management, data governance, data pipeline architecture
• Comprehensive understanding of healthcare payer operations, CMS and NCQA regulatory frameworks, Population Health Management, Healthcare Economics, and FACETS-supported business processes across Claims, Membership, Eligibility, Provider, and Care Management domains
• Proven expertise in managing highly sensitive PHI/PII, claims, provider, clinical, and member data while supporting Risk Adjustment (HCC/RAF), quality measurement programs, and ensuring HIPAA compliance, data governance, privacy, and security standards
• Solid expertise in healthcare interoperability and industry standards, including HL7, FHIR, X12 EDI (837/835/834), ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS, and LOINC
• Demonstrated ability to meet tight deadlines, follow development standards and effectively raise critical issues with the client
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, manage ambiguity, and deliver high-quality solutions
• Proven excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to partner with AI Engineering on RAG pipelines, embedding strategies, and vector stores that ground responses in EHR data, clinical documentation, and medical literature, including implementing data refresh patterns that sync with EHR updates and evidence-based guideline revisions
• Ability to travel 10 - 20% when required

Preferred Qualifications:

• Snowflake, Azure, Databricks, or Cloud Data Engineering certification 
• Experience with cloud data platforms across Azure, AWS, and/or Google Cloud
• Experience working with healthcare claims, member, enrollment, or clinical data
• Experience with streaming and event-driven architecture utilizing Kafka and Spark Structure Streaming
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Architected HIPAA-compliant Azure and Snowflake-based healthcare analytics platforms integrating Claims, Membership, Provider, Clinical, Laboratory, Pharmacy, and Care Management data

*All employees working remotely 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 $91,700 - $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.