Principal I O 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.

A Principal I/O Engineer designs, optimizes, and owns enterprise scale infrastructure platforms spanning cloud (IaaS/PaaS) and on prem environments. The role provides senior technical and operational leadership, shaping infrastructure modernization while serving as the Service Level Owner (SLO) accountable for reliability, performance, availability, and SLA adherence of assigned services.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. 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:

• Design and provide technical leadership for enterprise scale infrastructure platforms across cloud and on prem environments
• Serve as Service Level Owner (SLO) for assigned platforms, accountable for availability, reliability, performance, and SLA adherence
• Own ITSM execution for assigned platforms (incident, problem, change, release), acting as escalation lead for major incidents and accountable for service restoration and root cause remediation
• Own and drive operational excellence across assigned platforms, including automation strategy, monitoring standards, resiliency design, disaster recovery readiness, and technical debt reduction
• Ensure security, risk, and lifecycle compliance, including vulnerability remediation and platform lifecycle management
• Act as a senior technical authority and mentor, influencing enterprise standards, architecture patterns, and infrastructure strategy
• Apply enterprise approved AI tools to automate operational workflows and reduce repetitive manual tasks

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:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent practical experience
• 3+ years of Azure administration experience across CI/CD, infrastructure as code, container platforms, identity, networking, and observability (e.g., Jenkins, Terraform, GitHub, Kubernetes, Azure DevOps, Key Vault, DNS, Identity Services, Azure Monitor)
• 3+ years of experience administering virtualized environments
• Hands-on experience applying AI tools for workflow automation in an enterprise environment
• Experience supporting enterprise‑scale infrastructure platforms in production environments
• Experience with proactive monitoring, incident response, and troubleshooting across applications, infrastructure, and connectivity
• Expertise in Windows and Linux (Red Hat, Ubuntu, Rocky) systems administration, maintenance, and security
• Working knowledge of scripting and automation (Python, Shell, Perl, PowerShell)
• Ability to ensure compliance with enterprise security standards, including vulnerability remediation, centralized logging, access controls, and audit readiness
• Proven written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non technical stakeholders
• Willingness to support 24×7 production environments, including participation in on call rotations and restoration activities

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience coordinating cross functional remediation across security, operations, and engineering teams
• Background in DevOps or SRE roles transitioning into platform or infrastructure ownership
• Solid ownership of operational documentation, runbooks, and service readiness
• Demonstrated success owning enterprise service availability, reliability, and SLA performance

*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.