Director of Infrastructure and Operations Engineering - Remote

UnitedHealth Group•Basking Ridge, NJ

16h•$134,600 - $230,800•Remote

About The Position

Optum Tech is seeking a Director of Infrastructure and Operations Engineering to lead the strategy, execution, and ongoing improvement of DevOps, Security Operations, Cloud Infrastructure, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Platform Engineering. The role designs, builds, and deploys enterprise-grade infrastructure and AI-powered platform solutions to improve engineering workflows and address complex operational challenges. It drives AWS cloud modernization, responsible AI integration, and continuous improvement across engineering practices. The position is remote within the United States, except hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area must work in the office at least four days per week. Remote employees must follow UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy. The role includes leading engineering teams, managing technology vendors and operational budgets, partnering across technology and business functions, and serving as the executive escalation point for critical operational and security events.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field, or at least 4 years of equivalent technical experience.
12+ years of progressive technology experience in infrastructure, cloud engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, SRE, or Security Operations.
5+ years of leadership experience managing technical engineering teams.
3+ years of experience designing, building, or deploying enterprise-scale platform automations or AI-powered engineering solutions.
3+ years of leadership experience over DevOps and/or SecOps functions within a regulated or highly available production environment.
3+ years of experience managing enterprise-scale AWS cloud platforms.
3+ years of experience building and operating CI/CD platforms using modern automation and Infrastructure as Code practices, such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or GitOps.
3+ years of experience leading vulnerability remediation, security governance, incident management, disaster recovery, and audit/compliance activities, such as SOC1, SOC2, HITRUST, HIPAA, or PCI.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in business administration, Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering Management, or a related field.
Relevant industry certifications, such as AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, CISSP, CISM, Security+, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), ISC2 CC, or SAFe/Agile leadership certifications.
Experience designing, building, or managing infrastructure supporting AI/ML workflows, MLOps pipelines, or AI-assisted engineering velocity tools.
Experience managing secondary cloud platforms such as Azure.
Deep understanding of Identity & Access Management, including Active Directory, SSO, federation technologies, and privileged access controls.
Technical background in containerization and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes, ECS/EKS, and Docker.
Expertise with enterprise observability and telemetry tools such as Splunk, CloudWatch, Datadog, and Grafana.

Responsibilities

Lead the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of DevOps, Security Operations, Cloud Infrastructure, SRE, and Platform Engineering functions.
Own the design, implementation, and operation of secure, scalable, highly available AWS cloud infrastructure and supporting platforms.
Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions and platform automations for complex business challenges, emphasizing responsible AI use.
Use enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate operational tasks, and drive continuous improvement across platform engineering teams.
Evaluate emerging technology trends to inform solution design, platform architecture, and strategic innovation.
Drive DevOps transformation through CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code, deployment automation, and engineering productivity initiatives.
Lead Security Operations, including vulnerability management, security remediation, risk reduction, security monitoring, and compliance adherence.
Ensure the reliability, performance, availability, and operational excellence of production systems through monitoring, incident management, and service management practices.
Serve as executive escalation point for critical incidents, outages, cybersecurity events, and operational risks; establish disaster recovery and business continuity programs.
Partner with Architecture, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Enterprise Technology teams to deliver secure, reliable, and intelligent technology solutions.
Manage technology vendor relationships, cloud service providers, and operational budgets.
Recruit, mentor, and develop high-performing engineering teams.