Principal 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 inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.  

The Principal Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and managing secure cloud platform services, advanced AI/ML solutions, and scalable data engineering pipelines. This role blends deep technical expertise with strong leadership capabilities to deliver reliable, high-performing systems that align with business objectives while adhering to enterprise standards and compliance requirements.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Cloud Platform Engineering
  • Design, build, and manage secure, scalable cloud platform services aligned with business needs
  • Ensure compliance with architectural principles, design patterns, and enterprise security standards
• Data Engineering
  • Architect and implement robust, scalable data pipelines for ingesting, transforming, and storing structured and unstructured data
  • Optimize data workflows for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
  • Establish data governance practices, quality validation processes, and ensure compliance with security and privacy standards
  • Partner with data scientists and analysts to deliver reliable and accessible data for AI/ML and analytics use cases
• AI/ML Development & Deployment
  • Design and deploy AI/ML infrastructure and applications using frameworks such as Google ADK and orchestration platforms like AWS AgentCore for multi-agent workflows
  • Lead model development lifecycle activities, including evaluation, optimization, and production deployment
• AI Strategy & Governance
  • Define architectural roadmaps, reference frameworks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
  • Ensure solutions align with organizational standards for reliability, fairness, transparency, and security
• Team Leadership
  • Provide technical leadership and mentorship across cloud, AI/ML, and data engineering teams
  • Conduct design and code reviews while fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
• Agile Delivery
  • Collaborate with engineering, product, and business stakeholders in an agile environment to deliver high-impact solutions
  • Drive iterative development and accelerate time-to-value
• Innovation & Process Improvement
  • Identify opportunities to streamline workflows, reduce technical debt, and standardize engineering practices
  • Automate repetitive processes to improve efficiency and scalability
• Operational Excellence
  • Establish monitoring frameworks, define key performance metrics, and ensure system reliability and operational efficiency
  • Oversee implementation of security controls and compliance measures across platforms and data systems
  • Lead disaster recovery and business continuity strategies for AI and data infrastructure
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Communicate data governance and security standards across partner teams
  • Work closely with data scientists, product managers, and business leaders to translate requirements into scalable AI and data solutions
• Research & Innovation
  • Drive innovation in generative AI, NLP, computer vision, and emerging technologies
  • Stay updated with industry advancements and incorporate best practices into solutions
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering with a proven track record in building high-quality, scalable applications
• 6+ years of expertise in Java, Python, and Linux scripting
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), with strong proficiency in AWS
• 3+ years of experience with MongoDB, Databricks, PySpark/SparkSQL, and large-scale data pipeline development
• 1+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering, including deploying models at scale and leading teams. Expertise in deep learning, NLP, NLU, semantic modeling, intent classification, ASR, predictive analytics, and time series
• Experience with Hadoop ecosystem and MLOps practices

Technical Skills

• Cloud & IaC: Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, GCP, and Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform and CloudFormation
• Databases: Strong proficiency in MongoDB and relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server
• Security & Compliance: Expertise in designing secure systems aligned with enterprise standards (IAM, KMS, secret management)

Leadership & Collaboration

• Solid leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to mentor teams, lead architectural decisions, and conduct technical reviews across cloud, AI/ML, and data domains
• Ability to present complex technical concepts and analytical insights to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Solid foundation in data science concepts, including statistics, probability, optimization, simulation, and data modeling

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.