Senior Data 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.

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

Primary Responsibilities:

• Data Architecture Strategy & Leadership
  • Define and own the end‑to‑end enterprise data architecture ensuring scalability, performance, integration, and long‑term sustainability
  • Develop and maintain reference architectures, patterns, and standards for data modeling, storage, ingestion, processing, governance, and consumption
  • Align data platforms with business outcomes, regulatory requirements, cloud strategy, and modernization initiatives
  • Evaluate and recommend technologies across SQL/NoSQL databases, data lakes, lake houses, ETL/ELT tools, and compute engines based on enterprise fit
• Data Modeling & Database Architecture
  • Lead the design of conceptual, logical, and physical data models to support OLTP, OLAP, streaming, and AI workloads. Architect robust database schemas, partition strategies, indexing policies, sharding methods, and storage optimizations
  • Define standards for naming, modeling conventions, normalization/denormalization, and lifecycle management of data assets
  • Provide expert guidance on SQL Server, SQL MI, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and other enterprise data platforms 
• Data Platform Design & Implementation
  • Architect and implement cloud-native, hybrid, and on-prem data platforms supporting ingestion, storage, processing, and analytics
  • Design lake house and warehouse environments using Databricks, Synapse, ADF, Delta Lake, and scalable compute layers
  • Build end-to-end data flows covering batch, streaming, ELT pipelines, metadata, lineage, and monitoring
  • Ensure data platforms meet performance, concurrency, high-availability, and disaster recovery requirements
• Data Governance, Quality & Security
  • Define policies for metadata management, classification, lineage, quality scoring, and stewardship
  • Enable enterprise governance across catalogs, glossaries, access patterns, and regulatory compliance
  • Enforce security controls such as RBAC, encryption, auditing, masking, and network isolation
  • Establish data quality standards including validation rules, anomaly detection, and reconciliation workflows
• DevOps, Automation & Infrastructure-as-Code
  • Implement infrastructure and data platform provisioning using Terraform/IaC for repeatable deployments
  • Build CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps) for data models, SQL objects, ETL workflows, and platform components
  • Support containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes/AKS
  • Automate environment setup, schema migrations, monitoring, and compliance checks
• Observability, Performance & Reliability
  • Define performance benchmarks and baselines across storage, computer, SQL, and data movement
  • Optimize SQL/ETL workloads, reduce infrastructure costs, and tune pipelines for high throughput
  • Establish monitoring, alerting, anomaly detection, and reliability playbooks
  • Lead incident triage, RCA, and long-term remediation for platform stability
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration
  • Partner with Product, Engineering, Analytics, Security, and Cloud teams to align data strategy with business goals
  • Translate business requirements into scalable data solutions
  • Provide mentorship and technical leadership to data engineers, DBAs, and architects
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement
  • Stay current with emerging trends in data modeling, platforms, storage formats, and distributed systems
  • Drive modernization initiatives such as lake house adoption, automation, and cloud-native architecture
  • Refine architecture based on usage insights and business evolution
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
  • Maintain documentation of architectures, data flows, ER diagrams, standards, and decisions
  • Conduct reviews, design sessions, and best-practice workshops
  • Promote organization-wide literacy on governance, modeling, and quality

Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions to address complex business challenges with emphasis on responsible use of AI 

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: 

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or IT related field
• 7+ years of experience in data modeling, database design, and data architecture patterns
• 7+ years of experience with SQL Server, SQL MI, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
• 7+ years of experience in performance tuning, indexing, partitioning, and workload optimization
• 7+ years of experience with Metadata, lineage, quality, RBAC, encryption, masking, compliance
• 4+ years of experience with Azure Databricks, Synapse, ADF
• 4+ years of experience with Terraform, GitHub Actions, DevOps, Kubernetes/AK 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Strong analytical, communication, and leadership skills

*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 $91,700 to $163,700 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.

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