Lead Software Engineer - Remote

Optum, Inc
Richardson, United States of America
3 days ago

Role details

Contract type
Permanent contract
Employment type
Full-time (> 32 hours)
Working hours
Regular working hours
Languages
English
Experience level
Senior
Compensation
$ 193K

Job location

Remote
Richardson, United States of America

Tech stack

API
Artificial Intelligence
Airflow
Data analysis
Automation of Tests
Azure
Big Data
CSS
Code Review
Continuous Integration
Information Engineering
ETL
Data Security
Distributed Systems
Github
Hadoop
Hadoop Distributed File System
MapReduce
JUnit
Python
MySQL
Node.js
NoSQL
Operational Data Store
Scrum
Cloud Services
Scala
Service-Oriented Architecture
Software Deployment
Software Engineering
Data Streaming
Systems Integration
TypeScript
Management of Software Versions
React
Flask
Large Language Models
Prompt Engineering
Spark
FastAPI
Question Answering
AI Platforms
Angular
PySpark
Kubernetes
Information Technology
Low Latency
Enterprise Integration
Kafka
Free and Open-Source Software
Data Management
Machine Learning Operations
Virtual Agents
Docker
Jenkins
Databricks
Microservices

Job description

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design, build, and scale next-generation agentic AI systems and advanced solutions that improve healthcare delivery and operations.

In this individual contributor (IC) leadership role, you will operate as a hands-on technical expert, driving architecture, development, and deployment of complex AI-powered solutions. You will architect end-to-end question answering and multiagent workflows, integrate with our internal AI platform (e.g., UAIS), and ensure responsible, compliant use of AI in a regulated environment (HIPAA). The ideal candidate combines deep software engineering expertise with hands-on experience in LLMs, RAG, agent/tool use, and evaluation on modern cloud and data platforms.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives on solving complex problems, enjoys working at the intersection of AI/ML and distributed systems, and wants to make a meaningful impact in a highly regulated, mission-driven environment.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week., * Agentic AI Architecture & Delivery

  • Design and implement (multi) agentic workflows where LLMs plan, decompose tasks, invoke tools/APIs, and synthesize answers across heterogeneous data sources and services
  • Build retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and hybrid search pipelines to power robust question answering over clinical and operational data
  • Design, code, test, document, and maintain high quality, scalable Big Data and cloud solutions
  • Develop scalable microservices and APIs for integrating agent capabilities into clinician tools and internal apps
  • Create prototypes/POCs and conduct design/code reviews to derisk delivery and raise engineering quality
  • LLMs, GenAI & Model Adaptation
  • Leverage and adapt LLMs; perform prompt engineering, grounding, guard railing, and domain adaptation for healthcare terminology and tasks
  • Design intelligent frameworks and finetune models for compliance, accuracy, and ethical standards
  • Establish evaluation frameworks (automatic + human in the loop) to measure faithfulness, helpfulness, bias, toxicity, privacy leakage, and overall quality
  • Data & Platform Engineering
  • Partner with data engineering to build feature/retrieval stores, embeddings pipelines, and ETL/ELT jobs on Spark/Databricks; design analytics models and rules engines
  • Define and develop APIs for integrations across the enterprise; improve data access patterns for low latency inference
  • Delivery, MLOps & Reliability
  • Own MLOps/LLMOps: CI/CD for models/prompts, automated tests (unit/contract/eval), versioning, lineage, rollback; enable blue/green or canary releases
  • Instrument SLOs/SLIs (latency, availability, hallucination/defect rate) and cost KPIs (tokens, GPU hours) with dashboards and alerts
  • Lead production deployments on internal platforms (e.g., UAIS) with solid observability, reliability, and cost controls
  • Security, Privacy & Compliance
  • Champion HIPAA and regulated industry controls; integrate access controls, PHI/PPI safeguards, data minimization, encryption, and auditability
  • Collaborate with legal, compliance, and clinical safety to operationalize Responsible AI principles
  • Product, Estimation & Collaboration
  • Analyze and define customer requirements; assist in defining product technical architecture and delivery roadmaps
  • Provide effort estimates and inputs for resource planning; collaborate with QA, architecture, and peer teams
  • Write technical documentation, support production, and mentor engineers, and keep skills current through continuous learning

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.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or related fields

  • 10+ years of total technology experience

  • 8+ years hands on software development/data engineering/analytics with solid AI/ML delivery (Azure preferred) with Scala, Python, PySpark

  • 4+ years hands on with Databricks

  • 4+ years with ADF/Airflow (orchestration/scaling)

  • 4+ years with big data & streaming (Hadoop, MapReduce/HDFS, Spark, Kafka); Docker/Kubernetes

  • 4+ years with MySQL and NoSQL databases

  • 4+ years with Agile/Scrum, GitHub, Jenkins CI/CD, JUnit; solid coding standards and code reviews

  • 2+ years with LLMs & GenAI (Langchain, LangGraph, RAG, Vector DB, Azure Open AI, MCP Server, Agents, LangFuse)

  • 2+ years of experience with container (Docker/Kubernetes)

  • 1+ years with Proficiency building services or full stack apps (e.g., FastAPI/Flask, Node.js, React/Angular, TypeScript, HTML/CSS), * Healthcare experience; familiarity with clinical datasets

  • Experience working in regulated industries, with knowledge of ethical AI/ML practices and compliance requirements

  • SOA and enterprise integration concepts

  • Publications/patents or notable open-source contributions

  • Proven excellent analysis, problem solving, and communication skills

All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy

Benefits & conditions

(part of UnitedHealth Group) 3.33.3 out of 5 stars Richardson, TX Hybrid work $112,700 - $193,200 a year - Full-time, 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.

About the company

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.   You must create an Indeed account before continuing to the company website to apply

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