Senior Data Engineer - Remote

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Optum Health Financial Tech team is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to support Employer & Individual (E&I) HEDIS Retrospective data processing and cloud modernization initiatives. This hands-on technical role will design, develop, and support scalable cloud-based data engineering solutions that enable healthcare quality reporting, operational excellence, and regulatory compliance.

The ideal candidate combines solid healthcare and HEDIS domain expertise with modern data engineering skills and experience implementing AI-enabled solutions. You will work closely with business partners, product teams, functional subject matter experts, and auditors to deliver reliable data pipelines, automate workflows, and support critical business commitments across Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial lines of business. This role requires a solid individual contributor who can influence technical direction, solve complex data challenges, and drive operational excellence in a highly regulated environment.

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:

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support scalable cloud-based data engineering solutions and automated data pipelines
• Develop and optimize data integration frameworks, ETL processes, data transformations, and SQL-based solutions supporting healthcare analytics and HEDIS reporting
• Implement enterprise-approved AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI capabilities to automate data engineering workflows, improve operational efficiency, and enhance data quality
• Analyze complex business requirements and translate them into scalable technical solutions
• Support HEDIS measure processing, quality reporting initiatives, regulatory compliance requirements, and operational service-level commitments
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product teams, auditors, and functional subject matter experts to resolve technical issues, validate data quality, and ensure successful delivery
• Investigate production issues, perform root-cause analysis, and implement sustainable corrective actions
• Apply engineering best practices including CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews, version control, and quality assurance processes
• Contribute to cloud migration initiatives and modernization efforts across healthcare data platforms
• Ensure data governance, security, auditability, and regulatory requirements are incorporated into technical solutions
• Monitor and optimize data pipeline performance, reliability, scalability, and operational effectiveness
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers while serving as a senior individual contributor

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 the health insurance industry supporting HEDIS programs, healthcare analytics, quality reporting, or healthcare data engineering initiatives
• 5+ years of experience working with HEDIS concepts, quality measures, measure engines, and healthcare data domains including Member, Eligibility, Medical, Pharmacy (Rx), and Clinical data across Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial lines of business
• 5+ years of experience utilizing on-premise or cloud-based SQL databases in a business, research, healthcare, or analytical environment
• 3+ years of experience designing, developing, and supporting cloud-based data engineering solutions, automated data pipelines, and large-scale data processing workflows
• 3+ years of Agile/Kanban delivery experience, including engineering best practices such as unit testing, TDD, CI/CD, automated testing, and code reviews
• 1+ years of experience evaluating, implementing, or deploying AI, GenAI, Agentic AI, or intelligent automation capabilities within enterprise technical workflows
• Experience collaborating directly with business stakeholders, auditors, product teams, and technical partners to deliver solutions and resolve issues
• Proven experience supporting regulatory compliance reporting, business SLAs, and operational commitments within a regulated healthcare environment
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex technical and data-quality issues and drive effective resolution
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical and methodological concepts to non-technical business partners

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Health Informatics, Information Systems, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)
• Experience supporting cloud migration initiatives for large-scale healthcare data processing platforms
• Experience building and integrating production-ready AI capabilities into cloud-based data engineering architectures and workflows
• Experience with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards and clinical data integrations
• Experience supporting NCQA reporting processes and quality-measure implementations
• Experience with Databricks, Azure cloud technologies, and modern healthcare data platforms
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across cross-functional teams

*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.