Senior Data Engineer

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 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.

The Senior Data Engineer will join the Optum Health Ireland data engineering organization supporting the broader Optum Health business. The role will initially focus on the Performance Management pillar and its progression toward a trusted, production-ready performance management platform.

Working across Data Engineering, Product, Data Science, Business Intelligence and Governance, the engineer will design and deliver the governed data foundation required for executive and operational performance insights.

This is a hands-on senior engineering role with end-to-end ownership. The successful candidate will help shape the performance management prototypes into a reusable and trusted capability by developing Snowflake-based data pipelines and models; integrating performance, risk, quality, provider and gap-lifecycle data; implementing data quality, lineage, reconciliation and publish-gating controls; and partnering with stakeholders to ensure outputs are accurate, explainable and actionable. The role will also contribute to architecture, engineering standards, CI/CD, monitoring, governance and production readiness across the wider Optum Health portfolio while working very closely with the Unified Risk & Quality Platform team.

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.

What you will do:

• Data Pipeline Development: Develop and maintain data pipelines that extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from various sources into a centralized data storage system, such as a data warehouse or data lake. Ensure the smooth flow of data from source systems to destination systems while adhering to data quality and integrity standards
• Data Integration: Integrate data from multiple sources and systems, including databases, APIs, log files, streaming platforms, and external data providers. Handle data ingestion, transformation, and consolidation to create a unified and reliable data foundation for analysis and reporting
• Data Transformation and Processing: Develop data transformation routines to clean, normalize, and aggregate data. Apply data processing techniques to handle complex data structures, handle missing or inconsistent data, and prepare the data for analysis, reporting, or machine learning tasks
• Contribute to common frameworks and best practices in code development, deployment, and automation/orchestration of data pipelines
• Implement data governance in line with company standards
• Partner with Data Analytics and Product leaders to design best practices and standards for developing and productionalizing analytic pipelines
• Partner with Infrastructure leaders on architecture approaches to advance the data and analytics platform, including exploring new tools and techniques that leverage the cloud environment (Azure, Snowflake, others)
• Monitoring and Support: Monitor data pipelines and data systems to detect and resolve issues promptly. Develop monitoring tools, alerts, and automated error handling mechanisms to ensure data integrity and system reliability

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 extensive experience designing data solutions, including data modeling
• Proven extensive hands-on experience developing data processing solutions using PySpark, SQL, or similar technologies, with a demonstrated solid understanding of software engineering principles
• Proven experience orchestrating data pipelines using Azure Data Factory (ADF), Apache Airflow, or similar technologies
• Proven experience working with real-time and batch data processing architectures, including selecting appropriate solutions based on business and technical requirements
• Proven experience building data pipelines within cloud environments, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), following cloud deployment best practices
• Proven experience working with Hive, HBase, Presto, or similar big data technologies
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in SQL, including window functions and advanced querying capabilities
• Demonstrated understanding of DevOps tools, Git workflows, and CI/CD pipeline development practices
• Proven ability to collaborate with business and technical stakeholders during requirements gathering, technical design sessions, and SQL development and troubleshooting activities
• Proven experience supporting large-scale data pipelines
• Proven experience applying data governance controls within highly regulated environments

Other useful skills and experience include:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Database Management, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field
• Proven experience working within Agile and Scrum delivery environments
• Demonstrated familiarity with Azure Data Factory, Apache Airflow, or similar orchestration technologies
• Demonstrated familiarity with Azure Databricks, Snowflake, or similar cloud data platforms
• Proven experience with shell scripting languages
• Demonstrated solid proficiency in Python, including the development of data pipelines, APIs, automation solutions, and other general-purpose applications
• Proven experience working with Apache Spark and related big data technologies
• Proven experience developing applications and integration solutions using Apache Kafka
• Demonstrated familiarity with production-grade machine learning and artificial intelligence model development and deployment practices
• Proven experience working with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and related cloud infrastructure automation technologies

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.

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