Principal Software Engineer

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.

We are looking for a highly experienced Principal Software Engineer with strong expertise in system architecture, cloud-native application development, and large-scale data engineering. This is a hands-on technical leadership role requiring deep experience in designing and building enterprise-scale web applications, data platforms, and cloud solutions.

This role is best suited for a seasoned engineer who has spent the majority of their career as an Individual Contributor (IC) and can provide technical leadership through architecture, design, and execution rather than people management.

Primary Responsibilities:

Architecture & Technical Leadership

Define architecture and technical strategy for enterprise-scale applications and data platforms

Design scalable, secure, resilient, and high-performing distributed systems

Lead architecture reviews and establish engineering standards, patterns, and best practices

Drive technology modernization initiatives across applications, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms

Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to improve business outcomes and engineering productivity

Application Engineering

Design and develop modern web applications and backend services

Remain hands-on with coding, troubleshooting, code reviews, and technical design discussions

Build scalable APIs, microservices, and event-driven architectures

Collaborate with Product Managers, Architects, and Engineering teams to deliver high-quality solutions

Mentor engineers on software design, coding standards, and engineering excellence

Cloud Engineering

Architect and implement solutions on AWS and/or Azure cloud platforms

Design cloud-native solutions leveraging containers, serverless technologies, and managed cloud services

Implement DevOps best practices including CI/CD automation and Infrastructure as Code

Optimize cloud performance, cost, security, and reliability

AI & Modern Engineering Practices

Utilize AI-powered engineering tools to improve development productivity and software quality

Drive adoption of AI-assisted development practices across engineering teams

Evaluate and implement AI capabilities where they add measurable business value

Stay current with emerging trends in Generative AI, LLMs, and engineering automation

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:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline

12+ years of professional software engineering experience

8+ years of experience working as a hands-on Individual Contributor

Experience designing and delivering large-scale enterprise applications and platforms

Solid experience working across multiple technology stacks and architectural patterns

Application Development

Candidate should have solid expertise in at least one of the following technology stacks:

Java / Spring Boot ecosystem

.NET / C# ecosystem

Python

System Design & Architecture

Experience with distributed systems, microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture, and scalable application design

Solid understanding of software architecture and design patterns

Ability to make architectural decisions balancing scalability, maintainability, reliability, and performance

Solid SQL expertise is mandatory

Experience with data modeling, query optimization, and large-scale data processing

Experience with platforms such as Databricks, Spark, Airflow, Glue, Data Factory, Redshift, Snowflake, Synapse, or equivalent is highly desirable

Cloud

Hands-on experience with AWS and/or Azure cloud platforms

Experience building cloud-native applications and data platforms

Familiarity with Kubernetes, containers, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and cloud security best practices

AI & Engineering Productivity (Mandatory)

Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools such as:

GitHub Copilot

Microsoft Copilot

Claude

ChatGPT

Cursor

Similar AI coding assistants

Understanding of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)

Preferred Qualifications:

Additional experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React, Angular, or similar

Experience driving AI adoption within software development 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.