Principal - Business Systems

UnitedHealth Group is a health care and well-being company that's dedicated to improving the health outcomes of millions around the world. We are comprised of two distinct and complementary businesses, UnitedHealthcare and Optum, working to build a better health system for all. Here, your contributions matter as they will help transform health care for years to come. Make an impact with a team that shares your passion for helping others. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. 

We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to design, build, and scale cloud‑native data platforms that power large‑scale analytics and customer‑facing insights. This role focuses on modern data lakehouse architectures, distributed processing, and end‑to‑end ownership of data pipelines across cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. You will work with large datasets, enable real‑time and batch analytics, and partner closely with analytics, product, and infrastructure teams to deliver reliable, governed, and high‑performance data solutions.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Data Platform & Pipeline Engineering
  • Architect, build, and maintain distributed data pipelines using Azure Data Factory, Spark (PySpark), SQL, and Python to process large‑scale batch and streaming datasets
  • Migrate legacy relational or warehouse‑based pipelines to cloud‑native, distributed architectures, improving performance, scalability, and cost efficiency
  • Design and implement data lake and lakehouse solutions supporting analytics, reporting, and downstream machine learning use cases
• Cloud & Analytics Enablement
  • Build analytics platforms and develop and operate data pipelines on AWS/Azure
  • Enable BI and reporting solutions using tools such as Snowflake and Databricks, ensuring consistent and performant access to curated datasets
• Orchestration, Automation & Reliability
  • Implement monitoring, alerting, and error‑handling frameworks to improve pipeline reliability and reduce operational overhead
  • Apply CI/CD best practices for data pipelines using Azure DevOps or equivalent tooling
• Data Modeling, Governance & Quality
  • Design scalable data models to support multi‑layer analytics (raw, curated, and consumption layers)
  • Establish data contracts, SLAs, and data quality checks to ensure trust and consistency across consumers
  • Partner with analytics and business teams to translate reporting and insight requirements into robust data solutions
• Leadership & Collaboration
  • Lead design reviews for distributed data systems and provide technical direction on best practices
  • Mentor junior engineers and contribute to raising the overall data engineering bar across the team
  • Collaborate cross‑functionally with product, analytics, and infrastructure teams in a fast‑paced environment
• 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:

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, or analytics platform development
• Extensive experience building data platforms on AWS and/or Azure
• Experience with Snowflake, Databricks, or similar analytics platforms
• Proven expertise in ETL/ELT design, orchestration, and large‑scale data pipeline optimization
• Solid understanding of data lake, lakehouse, and warehouse architectures
• Solid fundamentals in distributed systems, data modeling, and performance optimization

Preferred Qualifications:

• Cloud certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect or Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
• Experience with serverless architectures and infrastructure‑as‑code (e.g., AWS CDK)
• Solid proficiency in Python, SQL, and PySpark, with hands‑on experience in distributed data processing
• Exposure to real‑time and streaming data pipelines
• Familiarity with AI‑driven or GenAI‑enabled data pipelines

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.