Lead Software Engineer - Remote

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. 

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead Software Engineer to join our UHC E&I Software Development team within Optum Tech UHC Technology to drive the design, architecture, and delivery of next-generation AI platforms and solutions. In this role, you will serve as a technical leader and strategic partner in advancing enterprise AI capabilities, with a focus on agentic systems, large language models (LLMs), and generative AI applications. As part of our commitment to building an AI-first organization, you will design scalable platforms, enable reusable capabilities, and accelerate adoption of AI across products and teams. You will play a critical role in defining how AI is integrated into our systems, shaping long-term strategy while delivering high-impact solutions in production.

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.

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Use enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and drive continuous improvement
• Evaluate emerging trends and tools to inform solution design, evolve AI capabilities, and drive strategic innovation
• Lead the technical strategy, architecture, and execution of enterprise AI initiatives, with a focus on agentic systems and generative AI
• Design and implement scalable, secure, and production-grade AI platforms, including LLM-based applications, orchestration frameworks, and multi-agent systems
• Drive the end-to-end lifecycle of AI solutions, including ideation, prototyping, architecture, development, deployment, and continuous optimization
• Define and establish reference architectures, engineering standards, and best practices for AI platforms
• Serve as a subject matter expert in AI engineering, providing hands-on leadership across technologies such as LangChain, LangGraph, vector databases, and orchestration frameworks
• Partner with product, architecture, and business stakeholders to translate strategic objectives into AI-enabled solutions that deliver measurable value
• Lead and influence system design and architectural decisions for distributed, cloud-native, and microservices-based AI applications
• Establish and enforce AI governance and responsible AI practices, including model monitoring, observability, reliability, and risk mitigation
• Mentor and develop engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and modern software practices
• Build and promote reusable services, shared frameworks, and platform capabilities to scale AI adoption across teams

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: 

• Bachelor's degree or 8+ years of equivalent software engineering experience
• 8+ years of software engineering experience with deep expertise in full-stack development, distributed systems, and scalable architecture design
• 2+ years of experience with programming languages including TypeScript and Python for AI agents and orchestration
• 2+ years of experience delivering LLM-based or generative AI solutions in production environments
• 2+ years of experience building cloud-native solutions using Azure, AWS, or GCP
• 1+ years of hands-on experience with agentic architectures and orchestration frameworks, such as LangGraph or LangChain
• 1+ years of experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, vector databases, and semantic search
• 1+ years of experience using modern AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Codex, Claude, Copilot)
• 1+ years of experience designing and implementing agent-to-agent (A2A) communication patterns, multi-agent architectures, or orchestration frameworks in production environments

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Proven ability to lead complex system design and architecture initiatives at scale
• Experience defining enterprise-level platform strategies, reusable frameworks, and technical standards
• Deep understanding of microservices, API design, event-driven architecture, and system reliability principles
• Proven solid leadership and communication skills with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising engineering and architectural standards across teams
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced environments, balancing strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Experience establishing enterprise reference architectures and driving adoption across multiple engineering organizations
• Experience building reusable AI platform capabilities including orchestration, memory, agent lifecycle management, observability, governance, and security
• Experience driving engineering transformation through AI-assisted software development, platform modernization, and architectural simplification initiatives

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 to $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.