Senior Data Engineer

Join Us To Start Caring. Connecting. Growing Together.

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 diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities.

To support this mission, OSIT has initiated a multi-year modernization program aimed at updating and enhancing enterprise technology systems in accordance with modern design standards.

For those who want to invent the future of health care, here's your opportunity. We're going beyond basic care to health programs integrated across the entire continuum of care.

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 for a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable data pipelines using Python, PySpark, and other modern programming languages to support both batch and streaming workloads
• Build and optimize data processing frameworks on cloud platforms such as Databricks or Snowflake, ensuring performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
• Design and implement robust data models, including transactional (OLTP) and dimensional (OLAP) schemas, to support analytics, reporting, and application integration
• Develop high quality SQL code including complex queries, stored procedures, and views, with a focus on performance tuning and efficient data access patterns
• Create and manage workflow orchestration using Apache Airflow or similar tools, ensuring reliable scheduling, dependency management, and monitoring
• Implement and enforce data governance and metadata standards through tools such as Microsoft Purview, including data lineage, classification, cataloging, and security policies
• Build automated data quality and validation frameworks to ensure accuracy, completeness, and reliability of production datasets
• Collaborate with cross functional teams including data architects, analysts, scientists, and business stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver scalable, well designed data solutions
• Lead technical design sessions and code reviews, promoting engineering best practices, reusability, and maintainability
• Support cloud infrastructure and DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, version control, testing automation, and environment management
• Monitor and troubleshoot production data pipelines, proactively addressing issues, performance bottlenecks, and system failures
• Contribute to the evolution of the enterprise data platform, recommending tools, frameworks, and architectures to improve scalability and efficiency

You'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:

• Bachelor's Degree in CS or IT related field
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or software engineering
• 5+ years of SQL skills and experience with OLTP and OLAP data modeling
• 2+ years of experience working with cloud ecosystems (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP acceptable)
• 2+ years of experience in Python, PySpark, or similar languages
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in Snowflake
• 1+ years of experience with orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow or similar
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a suitability or determination of eligibility for a Confidential/Secret or Top-Secret security clearance
• United States Citizenship required for this position

Preferred Qualifications:

• Healthcare industry experience, including claims, clinical, FHIR, HL7, or provider data
• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) for data workloads
• Experience supporting machine learning workflows or analytical data science pipelines
• Familiarity with data governance tools, especially Microsoft Purview
• Knowledge of distributed computing concepts and performance tuning

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). The salary for this role will range from $91,700 - $163,700 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.

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.