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 in making healthcare work better for everyone through people-led, responsible AI while
Caring. Connecting. Growing together.As the Senior Director of DevOps and SRE for Optum Health Financial Tech within Optum Technology, you will lead the DevOps/SRE horizontal function across core platforms including UM/CM/CCP/Clinical AI and Curo. This role requires a nimble, resilient, and internally motivated leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment where daily priorities shift rapidly. You will oversee a dynamic engineering organization of 70-100+ team members across Directors, Managers, and AIOps pods. In this role, you will critically evaluate incoming technical and stakeholder requests, prioritize under pressure, manage unexpected outages or security demands, and consolidate operational ownership to drive reliability, FinOps, and O&M savings. If you derive immense satisfaction from solving complex technical challenges and building goal-oriented, high-performing teams, this role offers an exceptional opportunity to make a lasting impact.
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:
- Lead direct reports and an engineering organization of 70-100+ team members across Directors, Managers, and AIOps pods to maintain 24x7 operational reliability
- Critically evaluate, validate, and prioritize incoming business, security, and technical requests to ensure engineering resources focus on high-impact, valid solutions rather than reactive execution
- Navigate fast-evolving operational challenges-including sudden staffing changes, security vulnerability remediation, platform outages, and aggressive delivery timelines-with composure and agility
- Define and execute the multi-year DevOps/SRE strategy, CI/CD pipeline standards, enterprise observability, and operational roadmap, adapting quickly to shifting organizational priorities
- Integrate enterprise AI tools, set AI goals in development plans, and align hiring with AI competencies, actively removing barriers to accelerate adoption across engineering teams
- Drive FinOps practices, infrastructure governance, and AIOps automation (e.g., automated remediation, intelligent alerting, event correlation) to eliminate toil and reduce O&M costs
- Oversee disaster recovery, incident management, application security patching, and regulatory compliance (HIPAA, HiTech) across all in-scope applications
- Champion the ethical use of AI by embedding transparency, fairness, and accountability throughout the operational and engineering delivery lifecycle
- Establish service level objectives (SLOs), service level indicators (SLIs), error budgets, and end-to-end observability strategies to balance rapid delivery with platform stability
- Foster a culture of high performance, goal orientation, continuous learning, and intrinsic motivation across the engineering organization
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 progressive engineering leadership experience within DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Infrastructure Operations
- 3+ years of experience managing engineering leaders (Directors or Managers) and multi-functional engineering teams
- 3+ years of experience owning 24x7 operational reliability, major incident management, outage resolution, and disaster recovery for enterprise applications
- 3+ years of experience directing CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps practices, cloud/hybrid infrastructure (IaC, Kubernetes), and modern automation strategies
- 2+ years of experience managing operational budgets, vendor/offshore resources, or FinOps cost optimization programs
Preferred Qualifications: - Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field
- Experience implementing AIOps automation, event correlation, and AI-enabled operational tooling in healthcare or financial technology environments
- Solid analytical judgment and demonstrated ability to validate stakeholder requests before committing engineering resources
- Highly self-motivated, purpose-driven leader who finds fulfillment in solving complex technical and operational challenges
- Proven record consolidating fragmented operational models into unified, high-performing shared services
*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 $159,300 - $273,200 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 help make the health system work better for everyone. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare by harnessing technology and innovation to make care simpler to navigate, more affordable and more connected for the people we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcomed, valued, heard and respected, empowering people to bring their authentic selves to work and strengthening our collective impact through diverse talents, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are 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 and its affiliated brands are a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.
