Principal UX/CX Designer - Multiple Locations

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 Enterprise Digital Product Office (EDPO) at Optum is a centralized organization focused on accelerating digital transformation across the enterprise. The team partners across business, technology, and operations to design, build, and scale product-centric solutions that improve customer experiences, optimize operational workflows, and deliver measurable business outcomes. The team drives consistency in product strategy, agile delivery, and design practices, enabling teams to operate with greater speed, clarity, and impact. By aligning cross-functional stakeholders and leveraging modern technologies-including cloud platforms, data, and AI-the organization supports the development of scalable, user-centered solutions that help advance Optum's mission to build a more effective and equitable health care system.

As a Principal Product Designer, you'll define the experience strategy for complex products while remaining deeply involved in the hands-on design work that brings those experiences to life. You'll partner with leaders across product, engineering, research, and business to solve the organization's most challenging design problems, guide other designers, and influence product direction through both strategic thinking and exceptional design craft.

This role is ideal for a designer who enjoys shaping vision while staying close to the work, leading through influence, mentoring others, and raising the quality of design across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the design of the organization's most complex and high-impact product initiatives, from discovery through implementation and continuous improvement  
• Define experience strategy and translate it into user journeys, workflows, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, interactive prototypes, and other design artifacts that bring product vision to life  
• Partner with product, engineering, research, and business leaders to identify opportunities, define product direction, and solve complex user and business problems  
• Drive discovery activities, synthesize research and analytics, and translate insights into innovative, user-centered product experiences  
• Balance user needs, business priorities, technical feasibility, accessibility, and regulatory considerations to deliver thoughtful and scalable design solutions  
• Build alignment across cross-functional teams by clearly communicating design rationale, facilitating discussions, and influencing strategic product decisions  
• Lead by example through exceptional design execution while establishing a high bar for quality, craft, and attention to detail  
• Advance the design system, reusable patterns, and design best practices to improve consistency, efficiency, and scalability across products  
• Leverage AI-enabled tools responsibly to accelerate research, ideation, documentation, and design workflows while identifying new opportunities to improve team effectiveness and product experiences  
• Partner closely with engineering throughout implementation to ensure the final product reflects the intended experience through ongoing design reviews and quality assurance  
• Mentor and coach designers through collaboration, constructive feedback, and design critiques, helping grow individual capabilities and strengthen the overall design practice  
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and design excellence by exploring emerging technologies, sharing knowledge, and championing human-centered design across the organization 
• 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:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience
• 14+ years of experience designing digital products for web and mobile applications  
• Experience mentoring designers and helping elevate design quality across teams through coaching and collaboration  
• Experience working in Agile product development environments  
• Portfolio demonstrating expertise leading the end-to-end design of complex enterprise products and customer experiences  
• Expert proficiency with Figma and prototyping 
• Deep expertise in user experience design, interaction design, information architecture and visual design 
• Demonstrated experience defining experience strategy and leading complex design initiatives from discovery through implementation  
• Proven ability to influence product direction and build alignment across cross-functional teams through solid communication, facilitation, and storytelling  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing enterprise software or large-scale digital products 
• Experience collaborating with globally distributed teams, including U.S.-based stakeholders  
• Healthcare experience
• Experience designing products in similarly complex or regulated industries including insurance, financial services, retail, telecommunications, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, or enterprise software
• Experience designing accessible experiences that align with WCAG 2.1AA requirements 
• Experience using AI-enabled tools to improve research, design exploration, documentation, or product design workflows

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.