Senior Data Engineering Consultant

Optum India; Chennai District; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum India is seeking senior data engineers to design and build scalable data infrastructure for large‑scale analytics. You will shape data architecture, optimize performance, and ensure data quality for cross‑functional teams across care, pharmacy benefits, and ML initiatives.

The role emphasizes collaboration with data scientists and business units, mentorship for junior engineers, and robust automation and deployment practices in a fast‑paced environment.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience.
• 9+ years of experience in data engineering or related roles.
• Hands‑on experience with Spark, Hadoop, or similar big data frameworks.
• Cloud platforms experience in Azure or GCP.
• Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes for container orchestration.
• Experience with distributed data systems and data warehousing.

Responsibilities

• Design & Build Data Infrastructure: Develop scalable data pipelines (ETL/ELT) for large-scale processing.
• Data Architecture: Lead architectural decisions for data warehousing and big data solutions.
• Optimize Performance: Improve database performance and data workflows.
• Data Quality & Governance: Implement data validation, monitoring, and compliance.
• Collaboration: Work with data scientists, analysts, and business teams to enable analytics and ML.
• Mentorship: Guide junior engineers and promote best practices in data engineering.
• Automation & Deployment: Create automated tests and deployment processes for data systems.
• Troubleshooting: Resolve complex data issues and ensure system reliability.
• Adhere to employment contracts and company policies; flexibility in work locations and shifts may occur.

Skills

Spark

Hadoop

Azure

GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

Data partitioning

GDPR HIPAA

SQL

Python

Scala

Airflow

ADF

Snowflake

NoSQL databases

Azure Databricks

Education

Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Snowflake

Azure Databricks

Airflow

ADF

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

• Design & Build Data Infrastructure: Develop and maintain scalable data pipelines (ETL/ELT) for large-scale data processing
• Data Architecture: Lead architectural decisions for data warehousing and big data solutions
• Optimize Performance: Improve database performance, query efficiency, and data workflows
• Data Quality & Governance: Implement frameworks for data validation, monitoring, and compliance
• Collaboration: Work with data scientists, analysts, and business teams to enable analytics and machine learning
• Mentorship: Guide junior engineers and promote best practices in data engineering
• Automation & Deployment: Create automated testing and deployment processes for data systems
• Troubleshooting: Resolve complex data issues and ensure system reliability
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re‑assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience
• 9+ years of experience
• ETL Tools & Big Data: Hands‑on experience with Spark, Hadoop, or similar frameworks
• Cloud Platforms: Azure, (or GCP) experience
• Containerization & Orchestration: Knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes
• Distributed Systems: Knowledge of data partitioning and parallel processing
• Data Security & Compliance: Familiarity with GDPR, HIPAA, or similar standards
• Data Modeling & Warehousing: Expertise in relational and NoSQL databases
• Programming: Solid in Azure Databricks, Python/Scala, ADF, Airflow, SQL; experience with Snowflake is a plus

Preferred Qualifications

• Streaming Technologies: Knowledge of Kafka or similar message queuing systems
• Knowledge of Snowflake
• Knowledge of AI and Machine Learning Deployment: implementing AI solutions (RAG development, Agents creation), Exposure to ML model integration
• Knowledge of CI/CD for Data: Jenkins or other DevOps tools for data workflows

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.