Vice President, Digital Engineering

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
In this leadership role, you will be responsible for leading a Product Engineering team of ~250 for the UnitedHealthcare mobile & web experiences. You will lead the organization through the creation and transformation of digital experiences serving patients, health plan members, employers, and providers. This leader will design and deliver the common component technology platform as well as our next generation consumer experiences. They will be responsible for the platform and application Engineering strategy, leading an integrated team focused on driving continuous, metrics-backed improvements to the digital experience through product and engineering disciplines. You will partner across internal and external partners to oversee (and be accountable for) end-to-end digital experiences.
Candidates for this role need to be seasoned engineering leaders with deep expertise in digital product delivery, have proven experience designing and executing on multi-brand and/or line of business mobile and web properties, deep understanding of direct-to-consumer digital products and ecosystems, and how to optimize cost and reuse.
You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires within 30 minutes of an office in Minnesota or Washington, D.C., you'll be required to work a minimum of four days per week in-office.
Primary Responsibilities:
Engineering Leadership

• Define and execute a long-term engineering vision aligned with the company's digital health strategy and growth goals
• Build, lead, and scale a high-performing global engineering organization with a culture of innovation, accountability, and inclusion
• Recruit and mentor senior engineering leaders, fostering both technical and people management capabilities
• Ensure the use of AI tools to drive increased developer productivity

Consumer Application Excellence

• Lead the development of robust, scalable, secure, and user-friendly consumer-facing applications accessed by millions of users
• Ensure product performance, reliability, and uptime meet the highest standards for public-facing systems
• Drive technical decision-making that enables speed, scalability, and flexibility across the stack

AI & Data Integration

• Oversee the integration of AI/ML-driven features (e.g., personalized recommendations, NLP, intelligent triage) into consumer products
• Partner with data science and product teams to deliver data-informed user experiences that support improved health outcomes
• Ensure responsible use of AI, including data ethics, explainability, and alignment with healthcare regulations

Healthcare Compliance & Security

• Ensure all systems are designed and maintained in accordance with HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2, and other relevant regulatory standards
• Collaborate with Security, Legal, and Compliance teams to implement privacy and risk mitigation best practices
• Proactively identify and address risks related to data integrity and information security

Operational & Organizational Efficiency

• Manage delivery timelines, budgets, team structures, and prioritization across complex product portfolios
• Establish and measure KPIs, engineering health metrics, and delivery benchmarks to drive continuous improvement
• Implement and evolve best-in-class software development practices, DevOps, and infrastructure operations

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product, Security, UX, and Executive teams to ensure technical strategy supports overall business and member-impact goals
• Act as a strategic voice for engineering in company-wide planning and decision-making

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:

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years serving in senior engineering leadership roles
• Proven track record building and scaling consumer-grade digital products with millions of users
• Experience leading geographically dispersed engineering teams of 100+ people across multiple time zones through other leaders (including prior experience having Senior Directors as direct reports)
• History of success improving developer productivity with AI tools
• Demonstrated expertise in Agile methods, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), microservices architecture, DevOps, and application security
• Excellent communication, influence, leadership, and stakeholder management skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building AI solutions at scale in production environments
• Prior experience upskilling a team relative to AI

*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 $200,400 to $343,500 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
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.