Principal Software Engineer -Remote

Requisition Number: 2339434
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.
This role leads the enterprise Open Source Program Office, defining the strategy and governance for the compliant, secure, and scalable use of open source software, data, and AI/ML models. It protects intellectual property and business interests while enabling teams to innovate rapidly within clear, enterprise wide guardrails.
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:

• Set the enterprise technical and architectural direction for compliant opensource and open model usage across software, data, and AI/ML, defining scalable patterns and guardrails
• Serve as the enterprise front line and escalation point for reviewing open software, AI models, and training data, especially externally facing use, ensuring adherence to license requirements and company policy
• Drive delivery of the Open License Compliance and Model/Data Provenance roadmap, coordinating cross team execution, tracking progress, and escalating resource or funding gaps
• Design and evolve compliance and third party risk controls as engineering systems, embedding them into CI/CD pipelines, developer platforms, and SDLC workflows to replace manual enforcement with automation
• Lead tooling strategy and execution, including build vs buy decisions, vendor engagement, and adoption of SBOM, dependency management, and governance automation platforms, vendor engagement, and adoption of SBOM, dependency management, and governance automation platforms
• Deliver hands-on engineering to build, integrate, and operate internal and customer facing compliance tooling, leveraging AI assisted development and coding agents to reduce friction and scale reviews
• Provide senior technical authority and guidance, translating legal and regulatory requirements into developer friendly standards while raising enterprise maturity through education and reference architectures

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:

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or DevOps, with demonstrated experience delivering software solutions across multiple teams and products
• 3+ years influencing enterprise-scale architecture, platforms, standards and governance
• 2+ years of experience with SBOM generation, dependency analysis, and governance tooling, including tools such as GitHub Advanced Security, JFrog Xray, or equivalent
• 2+ years experience with open source licensing and compliance, including license obligations, policy interpretation, and risk management for internally used and externally distributed software
• Experience designing and operating compliance as engineering systems, embedding controls into CI/CD pipelines, developer platforms, and SDLC workflows
• Solid proficiency in one or more modern programming languages (e.g., Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript)
• Proven ability to partner cross functionally with senior engineers, architects, security, legal, platform, and product teams to translate policy and regulatory requirements into practical technical standards

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working within or closely alongside an Open Source Program Office (OSPO), AppSec, or enterprise governance function
• Experience reviewing or governing AI/ML models and training data, including licensing, provenance, and external distribution considerations
• Experience owning or delivering multi-quarter technical roadmaps, including coordination across multiple teams and vendors
• Experience leveraging AI assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, LLM based agents) to improve engineering efficiency and automation
• Proven contributions to open source projects or developer tooling, either publicly or within a large internal engineering ecosystem

*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