Principal Data Engineer - Remote

UnitedHealth Group•Raleigh, NC

2d•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.

Requirements

Deep experience designing distributed, scalable data systems
Expertise in batch and streaming architectures
Experience building agentic workflows using Databricks AgentBricks or LangGraph
Solid knowledge of Data lakes, lakehouse architectures
Solid knowledge of OLAP vs OLTP systems
Solid knowledge of Event driven and real time data processing
Expert level proficiency in Python, Java, or Scala
Advanced experience with frameworks such as Apache Spark / PySpark
Advanced experience with frameworks such as Kafka / Pulsar
Solid SQL skills (optimization, query planning, performance tuning)
Hands on experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP
Deep understanding of Cloud native data services (e.g., Databricks, Redshift, Synapse, Snowflake)
Deep understanding of Object storage (S3 / ADLS / GCS)
Deep understanding of IAM, networking, security, cost optimization
ETL/ELT tools and orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, dbt)
Schema modeling (dimensional, data vault, event modeling)
Data quality, observability, and lineage tools
Solid understanding of Data governance frameworks
Solid understanding of Data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA depending on domain)
Solid understanding of Access controls, encryption, PHI, PII handling
Experience running mission critical data systems
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field
8+ years of professional experience in data engineering, software engineering, or platform engineering
3+ years in a technical leadership capacity (principal, staff, lead, or architect roles)
Proven track record of designing and scaling enterprise grade data platforms
All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy
Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

Nice To Haves

Master’s preferred

Responsibilities

Design and lead the evolution of enterprise scale data platforms
Own end to end architecture for batch and streaming pipelines
Set data engineering standards and best practices across teams
Review and approve complex technical designs
Influence platform strategy and long term technical roadmap
Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders
Partner with product, analytics, and security teams to deliver data solutions
Build multi agent AI solutions to drive efficiencies in rev cycle workflows
Own end to end data system design, from ingestion to consumption
Make architecture decisions that balance scalability, cost, reliability, and usability
Define data standards, best practices, and reference architectures
Review and approve complex technical designs across teams
Design systems with compliance built in, not bolted on
Act as a technical authority across multiple teams
Mentor senior and junior engineers
Influence roadmaps and long term platform strategy
Partner with product management, platform teams, and security, privacy, and compliance stakeholders
Drive alignment without direct authority
Design for high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery
Lead incident reviews and postmortems
Define SLAs, SLOs, and operational metrics for data platforms