Software Engineering Lead - Python - AI

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.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, test, and maintain scalable backend services and distributed systems using Python and modern cloud-native technologies
• Lead the architecture and implementation of high-performance solutions that support the strategic objectives of the POI project
• Partner closely with business stakeholders, product owners, and architects to translate complex business requirements into robust technical solutions
• Design and optimize APIs, integrations, data processing pipelines, and event-driven architectures with a focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability
• Drive engineering best practices across software design, coding standards, testing, observability, and operational excellence
• Build and enhance CI/CD pipelines and DevOps processes to improve deployment efficiency, system stability, and developer productivity
• Evaluate, select, and implement appropriate distributed computing patterns and cloud services to meet performance, availability, and resilience requirements
• Troubleshoot complex production issues, perform root-cause analysis, and implement sustainable corrective and preventive actions
• Contribute to technical roadmaps, architectural decisions, and long-term platform strategy while balancing business priorities and technical debt
• Collaborate with engineering teams across multiple disciplines, including application development, infrastructure, security, data engineering, and operations
• Create and maintain technical documentation, architectural diagrams, implementation guides, and operational runbooks
• Adhere to Agile and SAFe methodologies, engineering governance standards, and enterprise service management processes
• Stay current with emerging technologies, distributed systems practices, cloud platforms, AI/ML innovations, and software engineering trends, applying them where they create measurable business value
• Comply with all applicable Company policies, procedures, and business directives, changes including those relating to work location, team assignments, work schedules, and flexible work arrangements

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• 4+ years of experience in software engineering, with a solid focus on backend systems and distributed computing architectures
• 3+ years of hands-on Python development experience building scalable, secure, and maintainable enterprise applications
• Hands-on experience with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, automated testing, monitoring, and observability
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools and modern AI technologies, including GitHub Copilot and generative AI solutions
• Experience designing and developing RESTful APIs, asynchronous processing solutions, and backend integrations
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud container orchestration platforms
• Experience designing and implementing distributed systems, microservices architectures, and event-driven solutions
• Experience collaborating directly with business stakeholders to define requirements and deliver technical solutions that align with strategic objectives
• Experience working in Agile software development environments, collaborating closely with product, engineering, and operations teams
• Proven experience designing, deploying, and operating highly available, fault-tolerant, and scalable systems
• Working knowledge of Java and modern software engineering practices
• Expertise in cloud-native development and architecture using Azure, AWS, or GCP, with preference for Azure experience
• Demonstrated solid problem-solving, analytical, and troubleshooting skills with experience supporting business-critical production systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with large-scale distributed data processing, streaming platforms, or high-performance computing environments
• Experience with PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases, and data-intensive applications
• Experience within healthcare, pharmacy benefit management, or other regulated industries
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across cross-functional teams
• Experience with observability platforms, incident management, reliability engineering, and operational excellence practices
• Experience working in complex enterprise environments with multiple stakeholder groups and globally distributed teams
• Familiarity with architecture governance, solution design reviews, and enterprise architecture practices

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.