Senior Data Engineer - HealthCare Economics

Improve the lives of others while Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Job Description - Senior Data Engineer – HealthCare Economics (2384596)

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.

Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin or Letterkenny office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

As a Data Engineer at Optum, you will play a key role in optimizing the flow of consumer data and delivering actionable insights that empower members to make informed healthcare decisions and reduce costs. You’ll be part of a dynamic team focused on migrating consumer data to the cloud, enriching datasets with new sources, and enhancing the accuracy of predictive models to drive organizational efficiency.

In this role, you’ll design and implement robust data solutions, contribute to strategic data planning, and collaborate cross-functionally with business and analytics teams. Your work will directly support Optum’s mission to lower healthcare costs and help people live healthier lives.

What you will do:

• Data Pipeline Development: Build and maintain ETL pipelines to ensure seamless data flow from diverse sources into centralized repositories (e.g., data lakes, data warehouses), while upholding data quality and integrity
• Data Integration: Consolidate data from databases, APIs, streaming platforms, and external providers to create a unified foundation for analytics and reporting
• Data Transformation & Processing: Clean, normalize, and aggregate complex datasets to prepare them for analysis, reporting, and machine learning applications
• Frameworks & Best Practices: Contribute to the development of reusable frameworks and enforce best practices in coding, deployment, and pipeline orchestration
• Data Governance: Implement governance protocols aligned with company standards to ensure compliance and data security
• Monitoring & Support: Proactively monitor data systems, develop alerting mechanisms, and resolve issues to maintain system reliability and data integrity

You will 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 providing development for other roles you may be interested in.

What you will bring:

• Proven experience building scalable data pipelines using solid software engineering principles
• Proven experience in data analysis and data mining
• Proven experience working with cloud platforms and large-scale datasets
• Demonstrated proficiency in SQL and object-oriented and/or functional programming languages, including Python, Scala, or Java
• Demonstrated familiarity with DevOps tools, Git workflows, and CI/CD pipeline development
• Demonstrated solid communication skills and proven ability to collaborate effectively across teams and organizational levels
• Demonstrated proficiency with Snowflake or Databricks
• Demonstrated success working with cloud technologies

Other useful skills and experience include:

• Demonstrated experience with big data technologies, including Spark, Hadoop, and Kafka
• Demonstrated proficiency with ETL/ELT tools and orchestration platforms, including ADF and Airflow
• Demonstrated exposure to machine learning engineering and real-time and batch data processing
• Demonstrated experience deploying cloud solutions on AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Demonstrated experience working within Agile and Scrum environments
• Demonstrated proficiency in shell scripting
• Proven ability to work effectively within matrixed environments and collaborate with technical and business stakeholders
• Demonstrated success in project ownership and delivery execution

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.

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. Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2026 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.

UnitedHealth Group is a registered service mark of UnitedHealth Group, Inc. The UnitedHealth Group name with the dimensional logo, as well as the dimensional logo alone, are both service marks for the UnitedHealth Group, Inc.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.