Sr Dir Software - Data Platform Engineer - Minneapolis

Optum; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 159,000 - 273,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum, based in Eden Prairie, MN, seeks an engineering leader to drive reference architectures, platform capabilities, and observability across software, data, and AI foundations. You will lead a large, multi-team organization, roll out architecture patterns, mentor senior engineers, and ensure production-ready pilots before scaling enterprise-wide.

The role emphasizes hands-on pilots, cross-functional collaboration, and delivering scalable cloud-native infrastructure that supports AI-driven

Qualifications

• - 15+ years of software/data engineering, distributed systems, platform engineering, or related disciplines with growth in responsibility.
• - 10+ years building, scaling, and operating production software/data platforms.
• - 10+ years of hands-on programming in Python, Java, Go, SQL, or similar.
• - 10+ years driving technology adoption with Product/Data/Security leaders across large organizations.
• - 7+ years designing/operating modern data platforms with Spark/Flink, Kafka/Kinesis, Airflow, and cloud data platforms.
• - 7+ years in senior technology leadership roles overseeing large, multi-team orgs.
• - 5+ years building/operating cloud-native solutions (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• - 3+ years designing/scaling AI-powered systems (RAG, vector databases, embeddings).
• - Experience leading 60+ employees across teams/geographies and driving org change.
• - Proven ability to influence executives and deliver measurable business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• - Design and implement reference architectures and platform capabilities for software, data, and AI foundations across cloud production.
• - Translate AI frameworks and patterns into concrete reference architectures and operationalize them.
• - Validate major architectural decisions through hands-on pilots before scaling.
• - Lead, grow, and mentor a large org of senior engineers and tech leaders; hire and develop managers.
• - Build high-throughput, cloud-native infrastructure and data pipelines for enterprise workloads.
• - Align engineering execution with product, data, security, and infrastructure leadership.
• - Establish engineering standards for observability, scalability, and design reviews across teams.

Skills

Leadership

Cloud architecture

Strategy & planning

Engineering management

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentoring

Data platforms

AI/ML knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Advanced degree (preferred)

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

BigQuery

Kafka

Kinesis

Airflow

Spark

Flink

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Based in Eden Prairie, MN, our Software / Data Engineering team builds the scalable software systems, data architecture, and AI platform foundation that power the enterprise and enable next-generation intelligent products-rethinking how enterprise data and applications are architected, served, and governed across cloud platforms. Supporting UnitedHealthcare Technology's Chief Technology Organization, this team delivers the enterprise platforms, engineering standards, and architectural capabilities that underpin critical business, financial, operational, and AI-driven initiatives across UHC Technology.

In this role, you will lead a large engineering organization and be the driving force behind implementing the reference architectures, engineering standards, and platform capabilities the organization runs on, establishing consistency, scalability, and observability across every team. This is a hands-on engineering leadership role: you'll grow and run a large team, roll out reference architectures into production yourself and through your teams, and stay grounded in reality by personally running hands-on pilots to prove out what you're putting into practice before scaling it across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design and implement the reference architectures and platform capabilities for the company's software, data, and AI foundation-including the AI-ready data layer (feature stores, vector stores, embeddings infrastructure, retrieval pipelines) that turns raw data into something a model can reason over-and drive their adoption into production across teams
• Translate modern technology trends, AI frameworks, and architectural patterns into concrete reference architectures, then implement and operationalize them across the broader engineering organization
• Prove out major architectural decisions with a hands-on pilot or proof-of-concept before rolling them into production at scale-staying close enough to the code and the data to know whether an architecture actually holds up under real workloads
• Lead, grow, and mentor a large organization of senior software and data engineers, platform engineers, and technical leaders-hiring, leveling, and developing managers, and raising the architectural bar across every team
• Build and implement high-throughput, cloud-native application infrastructure, data pipelines, and intelligent services that handle large-scale enterprise workloads reliably and efficiently
• Partner cross-functionally with product, data, infrastructure, and security leadership to align engineering execution and platform delivery with long-term business goals
• Establish and enforce engineering standards for observability, scalability, and consistency across a large, multi-team organization, along with reference patterns and design review practices that raise the bar for everyone building against them

You'll 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 provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, distributed systems, platform engineering, or related technical disciplines, with a proven track record of increasing responsibility building production platforms and leading engineering teams
• 10+ years of hands-on experience building, scaling, and operating production software and data platforms, including data pipelines, warehouses/lakehouses, streaming systems, cloud-native applications, and enterprise-scale platforms serving mission-critical product and analytics workloads
• 10+ years of hands-on programming experience in Python, Java, Go, SQL, or similar languages, with the ability to personally prototype solutions, review complex codebases, and contribute to production-quality implementations
• 10+ years of experience driving technology adoption and architectural modernization through partnership with Product, Data, AI/ML, Security, Infrastructure, and Enterprise Architecture leaders across large-scale organizations
• 7+ years of experience designing and operating modern data platforms utilizing distributed processing technologies (Spark, Flink, or equivalent), streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub), orchestration frameworks (Airflow or similar), and cloud-native data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or equivalent
• 7+ years of experience in senior technology leadership roles, including Senior Director, Director, Principal Engineer, Distinguished Engineer, or equivalent positions, leading large, multi-team engineering organizations and driving enterprise engineering standards and architectural direction
• 5+ years of experience building and operating solutions in cloud-native environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, or equivalent), including knowledge of infrastructure architecture, reliability engineering, security, observability, performance optimization, and cost management
• 3+ years of experience designing, implementing, or scaling AI-powered systems, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, LLM-enabled applications, vector databases, embeddings infrastructure, feature platforms, and model-serving architectures
• Demonstrated success leading engineering organizations of 60+ employees across multiple teams and geographies, including hiring, organizational design, talent development, succession planning, and manager coaching
• Experience leading enterprise-wide organizational change initiatives, including driving adoption of new operating models, technologies, and business processes across large, complex, matrixed organizations
• Proven experience establishing and implementing enterprise engineering standards, reference architectures, platform capabilities, governance models, and reliability practices across multiple engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive large-scale organizational change through technical expertise, engineering credibility, data-driven decision-making, and delivery of measurable business outcomes

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field. Advanced degree
• Experience implementing reference architectures and platform standards at scale in a high-growth product or platform organization where software and data are core products
• Background in ML engineering, MLOps, or applied AI infrastructure in addition to core software engineering leadership
• Demonstrated track record of replacing or modernizing large legacy systems with modern cloud architectures
• Active involvement in the technical community through open-source contributions, technical publications, or industry conference presentations

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 $159,300 - $273,200 annually based on full-time employment.

We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.