Software Engineering Lead - Java Spring boot, Mongo, kafka

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, and maintain scalable Java/Spring Boot applications (Java 21+)
• Translate business requirements into robust technical designs
• Apply design patterns and clean architecture principles
• Develop efficient data access layers using JPA and MongoDB
• Build and maintain REST APIs and microservices
• Ensure high performance, scalability, and reliability
• Troubleshoot and resolve production issues independently
• Follow CI/CD, coding standards, and DevSecOps practices
• AI & Modern Engineering Responsibilities
  • Build RAG-based AI solutions (vector DB, embeddings, retrieval pipelines)
  • Develop applications using LangChain / LLM orchestration frameworks
  • Design Agentic workflows (multi-step, tool-based orchestration)
  • Leverage Copilot / AI-assisted development tools
  • Contribute to MCP-based integrations and AI platform enablement
  • Evaluate and adopt emerging AI frameworks and tools
• 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 Degree in Engineering / Computer Science
• 6+ years of hands-on Java development experience
• Experience using Copilot or AI coding assistants
• Solid expertise in:
  • Java 17+ (Java 21 preferred)
  • Spring Boot, Microservices architecture
  • Design Patterns (GoF, enterprise patterns)
  • JPA/Hibernate
  • MongoDB (NoSQL data modeling)
  • Experience in high-scale distributed systems
• Solid knowledge of:
  • REST API design
  • Logging, monitoring, performance tuning
  • CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions / Jenkins)
  • Proven ability to work as an Independent Contributor
  • AI & Emerging Skills
• Hands-on or solid understanding of:
  • RAG architecture
  • LangChain (or similar frameworks)
  • Agentic AI development
• Exposure to:
  • LLMs (Azure OpenAI / OpenAI / similar)
  • Prompt engineering techniques

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Java 21 features (Virtual Threads, Structured Concurrency, etc.)
• Experience with event-driven systems (Kafka)
• Knowledge of Cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP)
• Familiarity with MCP (Model Context Protocol)
• Proven exposure to Kubernetes / containerization
• Proven healthcare domain exposure (nice to have)

Key Competencies

• Solid ownership and delivery mindset
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
• Solid problem-solving and debugging skills
• Continuous learning mindset, especially in AI & modern engineering

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.