Lead Software Engineer

About the role

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.

As a Lead Software Engineer on our technology team, you will drive operational excellence, platform reliability, and system performance across high-consequence enterprise applications. In this technical leadership role, you will serve as a Site Leadership Owner (SLO), orchestrating release management, incident response, and Disaster Recovery while designing, developing, and deploying enterprise-scale software and AI-powered solutions. You will collaborate across Development, Operations, DevOps, and Security teams to modernize legacy systems, automate workflows, and ensure the highest standards of availability, security, and scalability.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities

Design, develop, and deploy enterprise-scale software solutions and AI-powered platform automations to address complex operational and business challenges with emphasis on responsible AI use

Leverage enterprise-approved AI tools to automate deployment tasks, streamline incident response workflows, and drive continuous system optimization

Lead production war rooms for critical P1 and P2 incidents, driving rapid service restoration, comprehensive Root Cause Analysis (RCA) publishing, and leadership presentations

Coordinate end-to-end release activities, including change ticket management, deployment planning, execution, and approval follow-ups

Evaluate emerging technical trends and AI solutions to inform architecture design, platform modernization, and legacy-to-cloud transformations

Plan and execute Stage and Production Disaster Recovery (DR) exercises, business continuity failover plans, and system availability strategies

Collaborate with Dev and DevOps teams to perform automated security scans, remediate application vulnerabilities, and coordinate product lifecycle management (PLM) activities

Manage message streaming platforms (e.g., Kafka topic onboarding and data pipeline mappings) and oversee vendor partner service requests

Participate in and lead Site Leadership Owner (SLO) governance meetings, operational discussions, and periodic health reviews

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 with expertise in Java, RESTful APIs, and microservices architectures

2+ years of experience leading engineering teams, technical initiatives, platform ownership functions, or site operational leadership (SLO)

2+ years of experience managing production support operations, leading P1/P2 war rooms, managing change approval workflows, and conducting Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

2+ years of experience with database design, tuning, and troubleshooting (SQL Server) and cloud platforms (Azure preferred)

1+ years of experience designing, developing, or deploying AI-powered tools, automations, or machine learning integrations within enterprise workflows

1+ hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, ITIL change management processes (e.g., ServiceNow), and enterprise observability platforms (e.g., Datadog, Dynatrace, Splunk, App Insights)

Preferred Qualifications

15+ years of software engineering experience in enterprise-scale applications (or Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/related field plus 8+ years of experience)

Demonstrated experience leading legacy transformations, stored procedure-to-API migrations, and modern cloud platform adoptions

Experience managing event-driven streaming platforms (e.g., Kafka) and data integration pipelines

Proven track record of planning and executing Disaster Recovery (DR) testing and high-availability failover strategies

Industry technical certifications in Cloud Architecture (Azure/AWS), DevOps, or ITIL Frameworks

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 - $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.

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