Data Architect - Minneapolis, MN

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.

The Enterprise Data Architect will lead the end to end architecture design of scalable, governed, and interoperable data ecosystems across the Healthcare enterprise. This role enables advanced analytics, Payment Integrity (PI), actuarial forecasting, AI/ML workloads, and enterprise reporting by designing data models, pipelines, governance frameworks, and Lakehouse patterns that support high quality, secure access to claims, provider, member, and operational datasets.

The architect acts as a strategic partner to business, technology, and analytics teams-ensuring unified data standards, robust lineage, architectural compliance, and alignment to enterprise data strategy.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Define and drive enterprise data strategy while guiding multiple engineering and analytics teams
• Function as SME in healthcare data landscapes and Lakehouse architectures
• Influencing enterprise decisions and architecting platforms that support PI, actuarial, AI/ML, and operational needs
• Working collaboratively with Data Science and AI Teams to lead successful delivery
• Supporting cross-functional leadership and long-term architectural vision
• Enterprise Architecture & Strategy
  • Define the enterprise data architecture roadmap, covering ingestion, curation, consumption, master data, metadata, and governance layers
  • Establish Lakehouse architectural patterns (Bronze/Silver/Gold), Delta Lake standards, and reusable semantic models in Databricks
  • Drive modernization of legacy data systems into cloud-native, scalable Databricks based platforms
  • Partner with enterprise architects to align data architecture with cloud, security, integration, and platform strategies
• Data Modeling & Domain Architecture
  • Create enterprise wide healthcare data models covering Claims, Provider, Member, Eligibility, Pricing, and Utilization domains
  • Develop canonical data models, dimensional schemas, and semantic layers to support PI, actuarial, clinical, and operational analytics
  • Guide end to end lineage, metadata management, and data cataloging using Unity Catalog, Purview, or similar tools
  • Architect data flows for structured and semi structured datasets (EHR, RCM, call center interactions)
• Platform & Engineering Leadership
  • Provide architectural oversight for Databricks pipelines, including ingestion, transformations, DLT, workflows, and feature pipelines
  • Ensure architectural principles for reliability, performance, and cost efficiency are embedded in engineering workflows
  • Mentor engineering teams on Spark optimization, Delta Lake performance tuning, and scalable design practices
  • Evaluate new tools, frameworks, and architectural enhancements to improve throughput and reliability
• Governance, Compliance & Security
  • Lead PHI-compliant data design, access controls, and governance frameworks aligned with HIPAA and enterprise policies
  • Define policies for RBAC, lineage, data quality SLAs, schema evolution, and data lifecycle management
  • Partner with Security, Compliance, Legal, and Audit teams to ensure enterprise-grade data operations
• Collaboration & Business Alignment
  • Work closely with PI leaders, actuarial teams, product owners, and analytics partners to translate business goals into scalable data architecture
  • Facilitate design reviews, architectural sign-offs, and stakeholder alignment sessions
  • Create reference architectures, playbooks, and reusable frameworks for cross-functional teams

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 Data Engineering
• 8+ years of experience architecting large-scale data systems in healthcare or regulated industries
• 8+ years of experience with Databricks Lakehouse (Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, DLT, Workflows)
• 5+ years of hands on expertise with Azure (ADF, Data Lake Storage, Event Hub, Azure SQL, Key Vault) or equivalent cloud
• 5+ years of data modeling (OLTP, OLAP, canonical, semantic models)
• 4+ years of experience with healthcare data domains, especially claims adjudication, pricing, provider data, and membership data
• Understanding MDM, metadata management, and enterprise data governance frameworks
• Reside in Minneapolis, MN and have the ability to commute to the office per Optum's hybrid policy

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's
• Experience working with EHR/clinical datasets (HL7/FHIR, CCD, claims-evidence alignment)
• Experience enabling AI/ML platforms, including feature store design, MLflow setup, and model deployment architecture
• Experience with enterprise semantic models for BI platforms (Power BI, Tableau)
• Familiarity with actuarial datasets, forecasting processes, and PI analytics domains
• Databricks Lakehouse, Cloud Native Data Architecture (Azure preferred)
• Understanding of Provider RCM workflows (billing, coding, authorizations)
• Proven exposure to Call Center datasets (member & provider telephony data)

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 $134,600 to $230,800 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 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.