Principal Data Engineer

Optum; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Professional development

Inclusive team culture

Private health insurance

Wellness programs

Pension contribution matching

Lunch provided by the company

Training opportunities

Employee donations matching

Job summary

Optum is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to lead the design, build, and evolution of data solutions for U.S. healthcare, driving scalable data platforms and analytics.

The role involves hands-on leadership, collaboration with product, AI, architecture, and security teams, and shaping data strategy in a hybrid Ireland-based setting. You will mentor engineers, establish data modeling, data quality, lineage, observability, and security standards, and craft reusable patterns to improve delivery

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership for complex data products or platforms while remaining hands-on in design and delivery.
• Proven extensive experience designing and building scalable data platforms, Lakehouse or data warehouse solutions, and high-volume batch or streaming data pipelines within public cloud environments.
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in SQL and a general-purpose programming language such as Python, Java, or Scala.
• Demonstrated solid understanding of data modeling, distributed data processing, metadata management, data quality, lineage, and observability.
• Proven experience designing trusted data and semantic layers for analytics, data science, or AI use cases.
• Proven experience making and communicating architectural decisions across security, reliability, performance, scalability, cost, and maintainability considerations.
• Demonstrated solid understanding of software engineering practices, including automated testing, version control, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and operational support.
• Demonstrated understanding of cloud security, identity and access management, tenant isolation, and privacy principles for sensitive data.
• Proven experience partnering with product, business, architecture, AI, security, and governance stakeholders to translate ambiguous requirements into deliverable technical strategies.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, influence technical direction, and communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the hands-on data engineering lead for strategic initiatives, setting technical direction while designing and delivering critical platform capabilities
• Lead the transition from separate data tenancies to a reusable multitenant architecture, with clear patterns for tenant isolation, access control, and data privacy
• Design and build scalable, reliable data products and platform components using modern cloud, Lakehouse, and software engineering practices
• Partner closely with product, business, AI, architecture, security, governance, and engineering stakeholders to translate complex needs into pragmatic technical roadmaps and solutions
• Establish and champion standards for data modeling, data quality, lineage, observability, testing, security, and operational readiness
• Create reference implementations and reusable engineering patterns that improve delivery consistency and reduce duplication
• Provide technical mentorship, design guidance, and constructive review to engineers, raising capability across the team without direct people‑management responsibility
• Evaluate architectural tradeoffs and emerging technologies, balancing scalability, reliability, security, cost, and speed of delivery

Skills

Technical leadership

Hands-on design

SQL proficiency

Python/Java/Scala

Data modeling

Cloud data platforms

Stakeholder collaboration

Mentoring engineers

Security and governance

Architectural direction

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Azure data services

Databricks

Apache Spark

Snowflake

dbt

Terraform

Job description

Improve the lives of others while Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Job Description - Principal Data Engineer (2378621)

Principal Data Engineer - 2378621

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.

Optum Product Engineering Nexus (OPEN) are looking for a Principal Data Engineer who will lead the design, build, and evolution of data solutions driving new products that serve U.S. healthcare. You will work at the intersection of engineering, analytics, and business strategy-building scalable, trusted data platforms and enabling advanced analytical, data science and artificial intelligence capabilities.

Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin or Letterkenny office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

What you will do:

• Serve as the hands‑on data engineering lead for strategic initiatives, setting technical direction while designing and delivering critical platform capabilities
• Lead the transition from separate data tenancies to a reusable multitenant architecture, with clear patterns for tenant isolation, access control, and data privacy
• Design and build scalable, reliable data products and platform components using modern cloud, Lakehouse, and software engineering practices
• Partner closely with product, business, AI, architecture, security, governance, and engineering stakeholders to translate complex needs into pragmatic technical roadmaps and solutions
• Establish and champion standards for data modeling, data quality, lineage, observability, testing, security, and operational readiness
• Create reference implementations and reusable engineering patterns that improve delivery consistency and reduce duplication
• Provide technical mentorship, design guidance, and constructive review to engineers, raising capability across the team without direct people‑management responsibility
• Evaluate architectural tradeoffs and emerging technologies, balancing scalability, reliability, security, cost, and speed of delivery

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

What you will bring:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership for complex data products or platforms while remaining hands‑on in design and delivery
• Proven extensive experience designing and building scalable data platforms, Lakehouse or data warehouse solutions, and high‑volume batch or streaming data pipelines within public cloud environments
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in SQL and a general-purpose programming language such as Python, Java, or Scala
• Demonstrated solid understanding of data modeling, distributed data processing, metadata management, data quality, lineage, and observability
• Proven experience designing trusted data and semantic layers for analytics, data science, or AI use cases
• Proven experience making and communicating architectural decisions across security, reliability, performance, scalability, cost, and maintainability considerations
• Demonstrated solid understanding of software engineering practices, including automated testing, version control, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and operational support
• Demonstrated understanding of cloud security, identity and access management, tenant isolation, and privacy principles for sensitive data
• Proven experience partnering with product, business, architecture, AI, security, and governance stakeholders to translate ambiguous requirements into deliverable technical strategies
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, influence technical direction, and communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences

Other useful skills and experience include:

• Proven hands‑on experience with Azure data services, Databricks, Apache Spark, or similar technologies
• Proven experience working with Snowflake, dbt, Terraform, or equivalent technologies
• Proven experience designing multitenant data platforms, including reusable architectures and tenant‑isolation patterns
• Demonstrated experience enabling Generative AI or conversational analytics solutions leveraging enterprise data, including retrieval, semantic modeling, grounding, or evaluation techniques
• Demonstrated knowledge of data cataloging, governance, and security controls for sensitive or regulated data
• Proven experience within the healthcare industry

What We Offer:

• Opportunities for professional development
• Inclusive and supportive team culture
• Key benefits: Private health insurance, wellness programs, matching pension contribution, lunch provided by the company, training opportunities, employee donations matching and others

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.

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.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2026 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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