Lead Software Engineer

UnitedHealth Group•Eden Prairie, MN

17d•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 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. We live in a time of unprecedented technical capability and possibility. Health care is at a pivotal point in this journey where even small gains can lead to major transformation. You could be a part of that – you have tremendous skill and the potential to make a lasting impact. Optum Insight Technology is uniquely positioned to bring your skills to bear on these pressing and life-changing technical challenges. The health care industry has an immediate need for your drive, innovation, passion and technical insight. Help us help the millions of people we serve each day. #OptumInsightTech The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Engineering team, a unit within the Optum Insight Technology organization is responsible for building commercial products helping payers and providers with administrative and clinician focused CDS solutions. We are seeking multiple Lead Software Engineers in multiple aspects of application and platform software development. This role will partner closely with Product Management, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, and ML teams to build AI/ML-driven applications. CDS is an area that truly touches payers, providers, as well as members and one where you can have a huge impact on improving the healthcare system for everyone. You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Requirements

10+ years of professional software engineering experience (or equivalent depth of experience delivering production systems)
5+ years of development experience with .NET, JavaScript, and/or Python (one may be primary; the others can be working proficiency)
4+ years of professional experience in at least one specialty area (pick one): Backend/API Engineering Data engineering and Analytics Front-end/web Engineering
3+ years of experience in relational databases (SQL)
3+ years of development and operational experience in the public cloud (Azure preferred)
2+ years of demonstrated ability to lead technical design and influence engineering decisions across a team/domain
Comprehensive understanding of software engineering fundamentals: testing, CI/CD, secure coding, performance, and operational readiness

Nice To Haves

Experience in healthcare
Expert understanding of engineering fundamentals: unit testing, code reviews, telemetry, agile and DevOps
Hands-on experience leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs)
Experience with microservices and event-driven architecture (APIs, messaging) supporting high-availability systems
Experience designing secure, compliant systems in regulated environments; demonstrated security-minded engineering
Data/AI platform experience (e.g., building or operating analytics/ML pipelines and/or data products that enable monitoring and trustworthy delivery of insights)
Infrastructure as Code and cloud automation (e.g., Terraform) for repeatable environments

Responsibilities

Lead technical design for epics/features; break down complex work into implementable increments and ensure delivery meets acceptance criteria and quality bars
Remain hands-on building software in .NET and/or Python, contributing directly to critical services, pipelines, or UI components
Influence engineering decisions across a team/domain, setting direction on architecture, patterns, and engineering standards while staying hands-on
Mentor engineers through code/design reviews, pairing, and guidance on best practices in testing, performance, and operational readiness
Demonstrate and utilize AI-based tools to improve the software development lifecycle
Champion secure engineering and proactively identify/close security gaps in solution design and delivery
Build and operate production-grade services and pipelines with strong reliability practices (observability, diagnostics, incident response readiness)
Drive CI/CD and automated testing practices to improve delivery velocity without sacrificing safety and compliance
Mentor and guide engineers; help develop strong engineering habits through coaching, pairing, code review rigor, and design guidance
Fully participate in Agile ceremonies (standups, refinement, planning, retrospectives) and improve team execution and predictability
Partner with product, architecture, SRE, security, data/AI teams, and stakeholders to align technical implementation with platform goals
Communicate tradeoffs clearly and raise risks early, ensuring shared understanding across distributed teams