Principal Software Engineer - Bigdata

UnitedHealth Group; Chennai; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,500,000; Full time

Job summary

UnitedHealth Group, Optum, is seeking an accomplished software engineering leader to architect and own scalable Big Data pipelines and agentic AI systems. You will define the technical vision, mentor teams, and ensure secure, high-performance platforms across cloud environments.

You will collaborate with product managers and data scientists to translate requirements into robust, production-ready solutions and drive adoption of emergent GenAI technologies.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with focus on big data pipelines and large-scale distributed systems.
• 2+ years hands-on GenAI and agentic/multi-agent architecture experience.
• Experience designing and implementing agentic AI architectures, including autonomous and multi-agent systems.
• Experience providing technical leadership and driving architecture decisions.
• In-depth expertise in big data technologies and distributed processing (e.g. Spark, Hadoop, Kafka).
• Strong programming skills in Scala, Python, or Java.
• Solid understanding of enterprise architecture, infrastructure, and networking fundamentals.
• Deep knowledge of cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP) and cloud-native architecture.
• Expertise in cloud security and application security (secure coding, threat modeling, IAM, encryption, vulnerability management).
• Demonstrated collaboration and communication skills across cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and lead scalable, high-performance Big Data pipelines for ingestion, processing, analytics.
• Define and drive the vision for agentic AI systems and multi-agent solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and set best practices across data engineering and AI architecture.
• Design secure-by-design solutions with secure SDLC, threat modeling, vulnerability management.
• Establish and enforce cloud security standards, IAM, data protection, encryption.
• Ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineering to translate requirements.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, security, and performance of data platforms in production.
• Mentor engineers and conduct design/code reviews to uphold quality.
• Evaluate emerging Big Data and GenAI technologies and drive adoption.
• Own end-to-end delivery of complex cross-functional initiatives.

Skills

Big Data pipelines

GenAI

Agentic AI

Cloud platforms

Security best practices

Mentoring

Scala/Python/Java

Spark

Hadoop

Kafka

Tools

Spark

Hadoop

Kafka

Azure

AWS

GCP

Job description

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.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Architect, design, and lead the development of scalable, high-performance Big Data pipelines for large-scale data ingestion, processing, and analytics
• Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for agentic AI systems, including the design of autonomous and multi-agent solutions
• Provide deep technical leadership and set engineering best practices across data engineering and AI/agentic architecture domains
• Design and implement secure-by-design solutions, embedding application security best practices across the software development lifecycle (secure coding, threat modeling, vulnerability management, and code reviews)
• Establish and enforce cloud security standards, including identity and access management, data protection, encryption, secrets management, and secure network architecture
• Ensure compliance with enterprise security policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards across data platforms and agentic systems
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into robust, production-ready technical solutions
• Ensure the reliability, scalability, security, and performance of data platforms and agentic systems in production
• Mentor and guide engineers, conducting design and code reviews to uphold high standards of technical quality
• Evaluate emerging technologies in Big Data and Generative/Agentic AI, and drive their adoption to keep the platform at the frontier of innovation
• Own end-to-end delivery of complex, cross-functional initiatives from architecture through deployment and ongoing optimization
• Comply with all applicable Company policies, procedures, and business directives, changes including those relating to work location, team assignments, work schedules, and flexible work arrangements

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with a strong focus on Big Data pipelines and large-scale distributed systems
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic/multi-agent architecture
• Experience designing and implementing agentic AI architectures, including autonomous and multi-agent systems
• Experience providing technical leadership, mentoring engineers, and driving architecture decisions
• In-depth expertise in Big Data technologies and distributed data processing (e.g., Spark, Hadoop, Kafka)
• Solid programming skills in languages such as Scala, Python, or Java
• Solid understanding of enterprise architecture, infrastructure, and networking fundamentals
• Deep knowledge of cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, or GCP) and cloud-native architecture
• Demonstrated expertise in cloud security and application security best practices (secure coding, threat modeling, IAM, encryption, and vulnerability management)
• Demonstrated solid problem-solving skills and the ability to design scalable, reliable, and high-performance systems
• Demonstrated excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence across cross-functional teams

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.