Principal Data Engineering - Remote

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Principal Data Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for designing, building, and scaling enterprise data platforms and pipelines. This role emphasizes cloud based data architecture, data solutioning, and hands on development, supporting large scale data and analytics initiatives. 

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely* from anywhere within the U.S., preferably in Minnesota, as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and implementation of cloud based data architectures and data solutions
• Build, optimize, and maintain scalable data pipelines on GCP or Azure
• Provide hands on technical leadership in data platform and solution architecture
• Work across cloud and on prem environments to support enterprise data needs
• Collaborate with engineering and analytics teams to ensure data reliability, performance, and scalability
• Guide junior engineers through technical mentorship and solution design reviews
• Leverage enterprise approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and drive continuous improvement.
• Ensure data quality, observability, lineage, and documentation (e.g., Great Expectations/DBT tests, Cloud Monitoring/Logging, Data Catalog)
• Implement security, IAM, and compliance controls; manage access, encryption, and PII handling
• Partner with Analytics/BI, Data Science, and Product teams to deliver trustworthy datasets and metrics
• Troubleshoot and resolve data pipeline incidents, drive root cause analysis and preventive improvements
• Contribute to data platform roadmaps, standards, and best practices

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering or related roles
• Demonstrated experience designing and building data pipelines in enterprise environments
• Proven solid hands on experience with cloud platforms (GCP preferred; AWS or Azure acceptable)
• Experience with on prem and cloud based data architectures
• Hands on experience with develop and optimize data models (databricks/snowflake or similar platform) and ELT/ETL workflows to support analytics and ML
• Proven solid SQL and Python development skills for data processing and pipeline development, hands-on with Cloud Storage
• Experience in Implementation of streaming and micro-batch solutions for near-real-time use cases
• Demonstrated experience in Building CI/CD workflows for data pipelines and infrastructure-as-code using Terraform
• Demonstrated solid understanding of data warehousing concepts, dimensional modeling, and ELT patterns
• Experience with batch and streaming data processing at scale

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Experience supporting large scale analytics or data platforms
• Demonstrated familiarity with multi cloud or hybrid architectures
• Experience working in enterprise scale environments
• Reside in Minnesota

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $112,700 to $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

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.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.