Director Software Engineering

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.

The Director of Software Engineering is a strategic and technical leader responsible for driving innovation, operational excellence, and team development across software engineering functions. This role demands a strong AI-first mindset, deep cloud expertise, and the ability to lead high-performing teams in delivering scalable, secure, and business-aligned software solutions.

You will be accountable for aligning engineering efforts with organizational goals, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and influencing cross-functional collaboration. As an AI leader, you will champion intelligent automation, data-driven decision-making, and modern engineering practices.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Engineering Leadership & Strategy
  • Define and execute the technical vision and roadmap in alignment with business strategy
  • Lead multiple engineering teams across domains, ensuring delivery of high-quality, scalable software
  • Drive adoption of AI-first engineering practices and intelligent automation
  • Influence design patterns, architecture decisions, and governance structures
• Team Development & Culture
  • Build and mentor high-performing, diverse engineering teams
  • Set clear goals, provide feedback, and support career development.
  • Foster a strong engineering culture rooted in ownership, innovation, and continuous learning
  • Ensure global resource allocation and effective partnering across teams
• Operational Excellence
  • Maintain 99.99% SLA across critical systems with robust HA and DR strategies
  • Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and implement 360° feedback loops for improvement
  • Oversee project lifecycle management, ensuring timely and quality delivery
• AI & Automation Leadership
  • Champion automation across new and legacy systems
  • Drive stakeholder consensus for AI investments and automation priorities
  • Leverage telemetry and metrics to inform decisions and improve outcomes
• Security & Compliance
  • Ensure engineering assets meet and exceed security and compliance standards
  • Collaborate with infrastructure and EIS teams to implement secure solutions
  • Maintain accurate reporting and adherence to controls and policies
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Partner with product, infrastructure, and business teams to align engineering with customer needs
  • Communicate technical concepts effectively to non-technical stakeholders
  • Lead weekly prioritization and escalation meetings with business partners
• 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 field
• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in leadership roles
• 5+ years of experience with Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, and modern software development practices
• 5+ years of experience with deep knowledge of network infrastructure (LB, DNS, Firewall, Remote Sites)
• 2+ years proven track record of leading cloud migrations (Azure, AWS, GCP)
• Solid understanding of AI/ML concepts and their application in engineering
• Proven excellent communication, strategic thinking, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven passion for continuous learning and technology innovation

Preferred Qualifications:

• Cloud Leader (Azure/AWS/GCP)
• AI/ML Foundations or Generative AI

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.