Lead Software Engineer

Optum; Washington (District of Columbia); Remote; USD 113,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum leads enterprise AI initiatives, offering a role to design, develop, and deploy AI-powered health solutions. You will architect scalable ML systems and ML pipelines, collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver impactful AI capabilities at scale.

The role emphasizes responsible AI, production-grade delivery, and close alignment with security, governance, and cost efficiency while enabling telecommuting from anywhere in the U.S.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Software Engineering building high-quality, scalable applications.
• 5+ years with Spark/PySpark or Scala.
• 5+ years data engineering and relational/non-relational databases.
• 4+ years Python programming.
• 4+ years CI/CD and automated deployment practices.
• 3+ years Databricks.
• 3+ years cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containers.
• 3+ years of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation).
• 1+ years productivity improvement using AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude).
• 1+ years AI/ML engineering in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end design, development, deployment and operationalization of production-grade AI-powered solutions and ML models.
• Build scalable cloud-based AI/ML systems, data pipelines, and feature workflows for batch and real-time workloads.
• Establish and drive end-to-end MLOps practices, including data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, monitoring, governance, and production support.
• Define architectural roadmaps, reference frameworks, and SOPs aligned with reliability, fairness, transparency, security and cost efficiency.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across cloud, AI/ML and data engineering teams.
• Establish data governance and quality validation with privacy and security compliance.
• Partner with product, data scientists, architects, and stakeholders to translate requirements into AI capabilities.
• Evaluate emerging AI tools to streamline workflows and drive continuous improvement in the software lifecycle.

Skills

Software Engineering

Spark / PySpark

Data Engineering

Python

CI/CD

Databricks

Cloud platforms

IaC

AI tools / Gen AI

MLOps

Leadership

Education

Master's degree in AI/DS

Tools

Git

Terraform

CloudFormation

MLflow

Kubeflow

Airflow

AzureML

Job description

Our Company

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.

Our Company

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.

Position Summary

As a Lead Software Engineer within Optum Technology, you will lead the design, development, and deployment of enterprise-grade AI and machine learning solutions that transform healthcare delivery. Working with cross-functional engineering, data science, and business teams, you will architect scalable MLOps pipelines, build cloud-native data workflows, and deploy cutting‑edge Generative AI and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) capabilities. This role offers an exciting opportunity to leverage innovative AI platforms, cloud architectures, and modern software practices to solve complex healthcare challenges and drive continuous engineering excellence. You’ll enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end design, development, deployment, and operationalization of production‑grade AI‑powered solutions and machine learning models to address complex business challenges with an emphasis on responsible AI use
• Build, architect, and support scalable cloud‑based AI/ML systems, data pipelines, and feature workflows for both batch and real‑time workloads using structured and unstructured data
• Establish and drive end-to-end MLOps practices, including data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, automated monitoring, operational governance, and production troubleshooting
• Define architectural roadmaps, reference frameworks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs), ensuring solutions align with organizational standards for reliability, fairness, transparency, security, and cost efficiency
• Provide technical leadership, architectural guidance, and mentorship across cloud, AI/ML, and data engineering teams while driving engineering excellence and reducing technical debt
• Establish data governance practices and quality validation processes while ensuring compliance with security and privacy standards
• Partner with product management, data scientists, architects, and business stakeholders to translate strategic requirements into deliverable AI capabilities and communicate technical approaches to leadership
• Use enterprise‑approved AI tools and evaluate emerging trends to streamline workflows, automate tasks, inform solution design, and drive continuous improvement within the software engineering lifecycle

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

• 10+ years of experience in Software Engineering building high‑quality, scalable applications
• 5+ years of experience with distributed computing framework like Spark with PySpark or Scala and high performance computing
• 5+ years of data engineering principles, relational and non‑relational databases (SQL, NoSQL or Vector databases)
• 4+ years of programming experience with Python
• 4+ years of experience and core software engineering best practices, including Git version control and unit testing
• 3+ years of experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment practices for production software delivery
• 3+ years of experience with Databricks
• 3+ years of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization
• 3+ years of experience in (IaC) infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation)
• 1+ years of productivity improvement using and leveraging AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude)
• 1+ years of AI/ML engineering experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and deploying ML models in a production environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related quantitative field
• Proficiency in .NET for backend development and exposure to React for building responsive user interfaces
• Experience working in the healthcare sector, specifically in clinical domains
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical AI/ML concepts to non‑technical stakeholders
• 3+ years of experience building and automating end-to-end MLOps pipelines (e.g., using MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, or cloud‑native tooling)
• Experience with Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) frameworks.
• 1+ years with Azure Machine Learning
• 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 $112,700 to $193,200 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.