Senior Data Architect

Job Description

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.

We are seeking a Senior Data Architect (SG29) with deep expertise in cloud-native data platforms, NoSQL technologies, and enterprise data governance. This role is pivotal in shaping scalable, secure, and intelligent data solutions that power business-critical decision-making. The ideal candidate will lead architectural strategies, design, and implementation of modern data ecosystems, while mentor teams and influencing enterprise-wide data practices.

Primary Responsibilities:

- Architect and lead the implementation of cloud-first, NoSQL-enabled data platforms for high-volume, high-velocity data
- Drive data governance, metadata management, and data quality frameworks across the enterprise
- Collaborate with business and technology leaders to define data architecture blueprints aligned with strategic goals
- Reengineer legacy systems and lead migration to modern cloud-native platforms (e.g., Azure)
- Design and optimize data ingestion, transformation, and consumption pipelines using both structured and unstructured data
- Define and enforce data modeling standards across OLTP, OLAP, and NoSQL environments
- Guide the use of data catalogs, lineage tools, and compliance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR)
- Mentor engineering teams on best practices in data architecture, security, and performance optimization
- Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies in data lakes, graph databases, streaming, and AI/ML integration
- 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:

- 12+ years of experience in data architecture, with at least 3+ years in a cloud-native environment
- Experience with ETL/ELT tools, data orchestration frameworks, and BI/reporting platforms
- Expertise in NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, Cosmos DB, DynamoDB)
- Full Data Lifecycle Expertise

- The ideal candidate will demonstrate hands-on experience and architectural leadership across the full data lifecycle, including:

- Unity Catalog: Implementing centralized governance and access control for data assets across workspaces

- Databricks: Designing and optimizing data pipelines, Delta Lake architectures, and ML workflows

- Snowflake: Architecting scalable, secure, and performant data warehouses and data sharing solutions

- Vector Database-Driven Design: Integrating vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone) for semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and AI-powered applications

- Solid command of cloud data services (e.g., Azure Synapse, AWS Redshift, GCP BigQuery)
- Deep understanding of data governance frameworks, data lineage, and compliance
- Advanced proficiency in data modeling (ER, dimensional, document-based)
- Proven excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Preferred Qualification:

- Experience in healthcare data or regulated industries

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.

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