Director Architecture - Remote

UnitedHealth Group•Eden Prairie, MN

18h•Remote

About The Position

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 inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. 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.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in software engineering or architecture, with 5+ years in architecture leadership roles
8+ years of deep experience designing distributed systems and cloud native architectures
6+ years of hands on experience with agentic or orchestration frameworks (e.g., CrewAI, Agno, Google ADK, LangGraph, or similar)
6+ years of experience with Python and familiarity with modern full stack or platform architectures
6+ years of experience with data architecture, APIs, and integration patterns
5+ years of solid expertise in AI/ML and GenAI architecture, including production deployment considerations

Nice To Haves

Experience building enterprise AI platforms or shared AI services
Experience with Responsible AI, governance, and regulatory considerations
Experience leading or mentoring architect communities
Familiarity with RAG architectures, vector databases, and evaluation frameworks
Proven ability to influence across engineering, product, security, and business teams
Proven excellent communication and executive level presentation skills
Proven background in healthcare, financial services, or other regulated environments

Responsibilities

Define and own the AI architecture vision and standards across the organization
Design scalable architectures for AI, GenAI, and agentic systems, including orchestration, memory, tools, and workflow patterns
Establish reference architectures for RAG, agentic workflows, decision automation, and AI platforms
Drive alignment between AI architecture and enterprise technology, data, and cloud strategies
Lead architectural design for agentic AI frameworks (e.g., CrewAI, Agno, Google ADK, or equivalent)
Define patterns for multi agent coordination, tool use, observability, and safety
Guide teams on selecting and applying appropriate AI frameworks and models for different use cases
Partner with engineering leaders to ensure AI solutions are implementable, scalable, and maintainable
Review and approve AI solution designs, ensuring adherence to architectural standards
Provide hands on architectural guidance during critical design, build, and scale phases
Enable reuse of AI components and platforms to reduce duplication and accelerate delivery
Establish guardrails for security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI
Partner with security, legal, and compliance teams to ensure AI solutions meet enterprise and regulatory requirements
Define architecture patterns for model governance, prompt management, evaluation, and monitoring
Influence and shape AI platform capabilities, tooling, and developer enablement
Evaluate emerging AI technologies, vendors, and frameworks and recommend adoption where appropriate
Drive architectural decisions that balance innovation, cost, performance, and risk
Act as a senior technical advisor to executives and leadership forums
Mentor architects and senior engineers, raising overall AI architecture maturity
Communicate complex AI concepts clearly to technical and non technical stakeholders