Principal Architect - Remote

Requisition Number: 2349398
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 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.
UHC Technology is focused on driving change, modernization, and ensuring reliable and stable systems so that we can help to transform health care - making it easier, more affordable, and more effective for those we serve. We are passionate about technology and the role it plays to create distinctive experiences to our constituents. While we are always focused on how technology can help us deliver faster and with improved quality, we are far more enthusiastic about the ways technology can reinvent how we deliver on our mission in partnership with the UHC lines of business and Optum Technology.
The Principal Architect is a senior level technical leader responsible for defining, governing, and advancing enterprise level architecture for Claims Core applications and adjacent platforms. This position emphasizes deep technical authority, architecture strategy, standards governance, and cross organizational technical leadership.
You will partner with engineering, product, data, clinical, and business stakeholders to align technology direction with enterprise objectives, modernize core platforms, and ensure scalable, secure, and future ready systems. Your impact spans solution architecture, platform strategy, AI/ML enablement, engineering excellence, and enterprise adoption.
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:

• Serve as the senior technical authority for architecture across Claims Core applications; define architecture vision, principles, patterns, and reference architecture
• Drive long range planning to align application and technology portfolios with business objectives
• Lead end to end architecture for platforms supporting claims, provider, eligibility, analytics, and modernization initiatives
• Evaluate solution options, integration patterns, cloud architectures, and modernization strategies
• Provide oversight for domain level architectures and ensure alignment with enterprise standards
• Assess and guide adoption of emerging AI/ML, automation, and LLM based technologies in alignment with enterprise approved tools
• Collaborate with senior engineering, product, clinical, analytics, and business stakeholders to translate needs into architectural direction
• Serve as the senior architecture point of contact across engineering, business, and operations teams
• Establish and enforce architecture governance, standards, patterns, roadmaps, and EA review boards
• Ensure compliance with internal policies, security guidelines, and industry standards (FHIR, CQL, CDS, HIPAA, terminology standards)
• Produce detailed architecture artifacts such as sequence diagrams, systems models, and data flows
• Lead proofs of concept, prototypes, and reference implementations
• Provide deep technical guidance to architects, engineers, and cross functional teams
• Mentor solution architects and engineering leaders; uplift architecture maturity and technical excellence
• Function as a thought leader within the architecture community and represent the ARC job family in strategic initiatives

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:

• 5+ years of technical leadership experience, influencing multiple engineering teams toward consistent architectural standards and platform direction
• Demonstrated experience leading architecture for large scale, enterprise systems (serving multiple business units, managing high volume transactions, or spanning multi team delivery)
• Hands on technical depth designing distributed systems, integrations, and cloud-native architectures across multi team environments
• Cloud architecture proficiency in Azure, AWS, or GCP, with experience designing or migrating at least one production grade system
• Proven experience driving technical change initiatives such as modernization, simplification, platform rationalization, or introducing new architectural patterns
• Solid cross functional partnership experience working with business, product, analytics, or clinical leaders to align architecture with business strategy
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate and guide adoption of emerging technologies including AI/ML, automation, or next generation platform capabilities
• Solid communication and influence skills, with a record of aligning senior stakeholders and mentoring architects or senior engineers

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in or supporting healthcare claims, provider data, or related healthcare domains, ideally across multiple platforms or functions
• Experience leading or contributing to enterprise architecture governance, including review boards, standards development, or platform roadmapping
• Experience driving or supporting modernization of legacy systems, including cloud migration, application rationalization, or platform consolidation efforts
• Experience aligning architectural direction across global engineering teams (India + U.S. or similar distributed model)
• Experience implementing or advising on AI-enabled capabilities-LLMs, automation, RAG, intelligent routing, or AI-assisted engineering patterns

*All employees working remotely 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 $134,600 to $230,800 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.