Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software EngineerOptum 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, and data they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.As a Lead Software Engineer within Optum Technology, you will lead the design, development, and deployment of enterprise-grade AI and machine learning solutions that transform healthcare delivery. Working with cross-functional engineering, data science, and business teams, you will architect scalable MLOps pipelines, build cloud-native data workflows, and deploy cutting-edge Generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) capabilities. This role offers an exciting opportunity to leverage innovative AI platforms, cloud architectures, and modern software practices to solve complex healthcare challenges and drive continuous engineering excellence.You'll enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.Primary Responsibilities:Lead the end-to-end design, development, deployment, and operationalization of production-grade AI-powered solutions and machine learning models to address complex business challenges with an emphasis on responsible AI useBuild, architect, and support scalable cloud-based AI/ML systems, data pipelines, and feature workflows for both batch and real-time workloads using structured and unstructured dataEstablish and drive end-to-end MLOps practices, including data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, automated monitoring, operational governance, and production troubleshootingDefine architectural roadmaps, reference frameworks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs), ensuring solutions align with organizational standards for reliability, fairness, transparency, security, and cost efficiencyProvide technical leadership, architectural guidance, and mentorship across cloud, AI/ML, and data engineering teams while driving engineering excellence and reducing technical debtEstablish data governance practices and quality validation processes while ensuring compliance with security and privacy standardsPartner with product management, data scientists, architects, and business stakeholders to translate strategic requirements into deliverable AI capabilities and communicate technical approaches to leadershipUse enterprise-approved AI tools and evaluate emerging trends to streamline workflows, automate tasks, inform solution design, and drive continuous improvement within the software engineering lifecycleYou'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.Required Qualifications:10+ years of experience in Software Engineering building high-quality, scalable applications5+ years of experience with distributed computing framework like Spark with PySpark or Scala and high performance computing5+ years of data engineering principles, relational and non-relational databases (SQL, NoSQL or Vector databases)4+ years of programming experience with Python4+ years of experience and core software engineering best practices, including Git version control and unit testing3+ years of experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment practices for production software delivery3+ years of experience with Databricks3+ years of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization3+ years of experience in (IaC) infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation)1+ years of productivity improvement using and leveraging AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude)1+ years of AI/ML engineering experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and deploying ML models in a production environmentPreferred Qualifications:Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related quantitative fieldProficiency in.NET for backend development and exposure to React for building responsive user interfacesExperience working in the healthcare sector, specifically in clinical domainsExcellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical AI/ML concepts to non-technical stakeholders3+ years of experience building and automating end-to-end MLOps pipelines (e.g., using MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, or cloud-native tooling)Experience with Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) frameworks.1+ years with Azure Machine LearningPay 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). 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.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.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 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.