Principal Data Engineer

Humana • Dallas, TX

5d • Remote

About The Position

Become a part of our caring community. Join Humana in our mission to put health first by advancing data-driven, connected care across the healthcare ecosystem. This is not a typical data engineering role. As a Principal Data Engineer, you will build and lead an enterprise Integration & Interoperability Center of Excellence (COE)—owning the architecture that connects claims, clinical, pharmacy, and provider workflows at scale, and delivers real-time insights into EMRs at the point of care. If you've worked on platforms at Optum, Change Healthcare, CVS Health, or Elevance Health—this role gives you end-to-end ownership to define the next-generation interoperability layer vs. optimizing a single piece of it.

Requirements

• 10+ years in data engineering, with deep healthcare experience
• Experience at scale in organizations like: Optum / Change Healthcare, CVS Health / Elevance Health
• Proven track record building integration platforms, not just pipelines
• Strong expertise in: FHIR (R4), HL7v2, CCDA, ADT, APIs, Streaming + batch architectures
• Hands-on with: Python / Scala / Java, Spark, Kafka, SQL, Cloud-native data platforms
• Deep understanding of: Claims, clinical, and pharmacy data models, HEDIS, Star Ratings, Risk Adjustment (HCC)
• Experience integrating with EMRs and provider workflows

Nice To Haves

• You’ve tried to modernize legacy healthcare integrations—and know where they break
• You’ve seen the gap between data platforms and provider adoption
• You want to build systems that actually change behavior at the point of care
• You’re ready to move from incremental improvements → foundational transformation

Responsibilities

• Build the Integration & Interoperability COE
• Stand up and lead a centralized COE for integrations, interoperability, and data exchange
• Define enterprise standards across: FHIR-first and API-first architectures, Event-driven patterns (Kafka, streaming, real-time triggers), Canonical data models across payer + provider domains, Rationalize and modernize legacy integration patterns (ETL, flat files, point-to-point)
• Architect pipelines across: Claims (837/835), Eligibility (834), Authorizations, Encounters, Clinical data (Epic, Cerner, Athena), Pharmacy (PBM), labs, ADT feeds, HIE integrations
• Enable near real-time ingestion and bidirectional data exchange
• Solve for identity, matching, and longitudinal member record creation
• Push insights directly into EMRs: Care gaps (HEDIS) surfaced during visits, Suspected conditions (HCC) at time of documentation, Utilization signals (ED/IP events) via ADT feeds
• Build FHIR APIs, SMART on FHIR integrations, and event triggers that actually get used by providers
• Build data products that influence: Star Ratings performance (Medicare Advantage), HEDIS gap closure at scale, Risk adjustment accuracy and recapture
• Move from retrospective reporting → prospective, actionable insights
• Design cloud-native platforms leveraging: AWS / Azure / GCP, Spark, Kafka, Databricks, Delta Lake
• Implement: Data observability (freshness, lineage, quality), Scalable API layers and microservices
• Ensure HIPAA-compliant, secure, governed architectures
• Act as a bridge between engineering, clinical, and business teams
• Influence roadmap across interoperability, data platforms, and AI
• Mentor teams and elevate engineering standards across the org
• Use your skills to make an impact

Benefits

• medical, dental and vision benefits
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• time off (including paid time off, company and personal holidays, volunteer time off, paid parental and caregiver leave)
• short-term and long-term disability
• life insurance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed