Senior Data Engineer

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, and data 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.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. 

Primary Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise database, data warehouse, data lake, lakehouse, and cloud data architectures
• Develop scalable solutions using Platform-as-a-Service and cloud technologies, with a focus on data stores and associated ecosystems
• Design data models, schemas, data structures, and integration patterns to support operational, analytical, and AI workloads
• Develop and optimize SQL, data markup scripts, ETL/ELT pipelines, data ingestion processes, and data provisioning solutions
• Establish and enforce data quality, data governance, metadata management, security, privacy, and compliance standards
• Provide database and cloud platform sizing, configuration, capacity planning, performance tuning, and optimization guidance
• Conduct needs assessments and analyze current business practices, processes, and procedures to identify opportunities for improving data accessibility and usage
• Evaluate future business opportunities for leveraging data storage, retrieval, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence capabilities
• Design and support data platforms that enable reporting, advanced analytics, predictive modeling, machine learning, and generative AI applications
• Develop AI-ready data foundations, including feature data, vector storage, embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation, model-serving data, and real-time or batch data pipelines
• Partner with data scientists, AI engineers, application developers, and business teams to operationalize machine learning and AI solutions
• Help establish responsible AI practices, including data lineage, model monitoring, explain ability, access controls, risk management, and appropriate use of sensitive data
• Support the development of analytics and applications that build on enterprise data platforms
• Assess non-standard technical requests and recommend practical, scalable, and cost-effective solutions
• Analyze the architectural impact of software, hardware, cloud, and data acquisition vendor strategies
• Manage relationships with software and hardware vendors and participate in product evaluations, technical reviews, and roadmap discussions
• Provide technical guidance, explanations, and recommendations to stakeholders on complex data and AI architecture issues
• Select, develop, and evaluate personnel to ensure the efficient operation of the function
• Coach team members, provide feedback, share knowledge, and serve as a resource for less-experienced employees
• Establish standards, patterns, documentation, and reusable practices for data engineering, cloud architecture, and AI platform development
• Participate in architecture reviews, solution design, risk assessments, implementation planning, and production support activities

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree
• 5+ years of experience in database architecture, data engineering, data modeling, data warehousing, ETL/ELT development, or cloud data platform engineering
• 5+ years of experience writing SQL and developing data integration or data provisioning solutions
• 5+ years of experience with data security, governance, quality, privacy, access management, and compliance practices
• 2+ years of experience with one or more cloud platforms and their data services

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience coaching, mentoring, or guiding other employees
• Ability to assess customer needs and translate business and technical concepts into practical solutions
• Ability to solve moderately complex problems and conduct moderately complex analyses with minimal guidance
• Ability to work independently on complex, less-structured assignments
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain difficult technical issues to technical and non-technical audiences

*All Telecommuters will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $91,700 to $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable. 

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. 

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants. 

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location, and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups, and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes — an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

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