Principal 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 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.

We are looking for a hands-on Solution Architect with deep expertise in Azure and Databricks, a platform-first mindset, and a solid focus on AI enablement. In this role, you will design scalable, secure, and high-performing cloud and data solutions, define and evolve architecture frameworks and automation patterns, provide technical leadership for complex issue resolution, and drive adoption of emerging cloud capabilities through POCs, reference architectures, and best practices.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Solution Architecture
  • Lead the end-to-end design and implementation of processes/systems/applications to support Engineering and business users across multi-cloud environments (Azure/AWS/GCP), ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability
• Develop & Maintain (Services, Pipelines, Patterns, Frameworks)
  • Develop services, processes, pipelines, and reusable patterns that enable the team to handle repetitive tasks quickly and sustainably in public cloud and on-prem environments
  • Maintain and enhance current automation frameworks (mainly Azure and Databricks) that support the Data Mesh solution
• Collaboration & Engineering Excellence
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams of developers, senior architects, product managers, DevOps, and project managers
  • Foster high-performance, collaborative technical work resulting in high-quality output
• Automation, CI/CD & Delivery Enablement
  • Develop and maintain automation frameworks using Databricks, PySpark, PowerShell, Scala spark, and T-SQL to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and improve reliability
• Innovation, Feature Evaluation & POCs
  • Proactively learn evolving features being released in Azure or Databricks and perform POCs to implement those capabilities
  • Integrate AI/ML-driven capabilities into existing automation frameworks or build new solutions to improve user experience and reduce cost
• Cross-Functional Projects, Cloud Adoption & Optimization
  • Support cross-functional data integration, cloud adoption, and migration projects end-to-end
  • Monitor and optimize resource utilization, cost efficiency, and scalability across cloud platforms
• Professional Development
  • Stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in Azure/Databricks and best practices
  • Attend relevant conferences, workshops, and training sessions to enhance technical knowledge and leadership skills
  • Pursue certifications related to Azure/Databricks
  • Continuously track and adopt the latest advancements in Azure, Databricks, cloud databases, automation, and AI/ML capabilities
• 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 regard 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:

• Experience: 13+ years of experience in data, cloud, and analytics solution architecture, with a solid track record of designing and delivering enterprise-scale data platforms.
  Azure Solution Architecture: Solid experience in architecting end-to-end Azure-based data and analytics solutions using services such as Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory (ADF), and cloud-native data platforms
• Architecture & Design Leadership: Ability to translate business requirements into scalable, secure, high-performance, and cost-effective solution architectures, including definition of architecture standards, frameworks, and best practices
• Technical Depth: Good working knowledge of Python and/or Scala, along with solid SQL expertise, to guide engineering teams, review solution feasibility, and support architectural decision-making
• Cloud Platforms: Deep expertise in Azure, with working knowledge of AWS; exposure to GCP is an added advantage
• Data Platform Design: Solid understanding of data modeling, data warehousing, lakehouse/lake architectures, and relational as well as cloud-based databases
• Security & Compliance: Experience in designing solutions with security, governance, and compliance in mind, including standards from a Solution Architect perspective
• AI Skills:
  • Required experience with AI/ML tools, including prompt engineering, data analysis, automation, and the ability to apply AI solutions to improve business processes
  • Candidates should be familiar with generative AI platforms, interpreting AI-driven insights, and using AI technologies responsibly and effectively in day-to-day work

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.