Principal Software Engineer

Requisition Number: 2345652
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.
This role is responsible for managing, operating, and evolving enterprise API Gateway platforms hosted across cloud environments, with a solid focus on Apigee (including OPDK), Azure API Management (APIM), and AWS API Gateway. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will own the availability, scalability, security, and automation of API gateway platforms that support mission critical healthcare workloads. Success in this role is defined by automation first operations, high availability by design, frequent AMI rotations, and the use of AI as the default approach for monitoring, incident response, and operational decision making.
Primary Responsibilities:

• API Gateway Platform Management
• Own and operate enterprise API Gateway platforms, including:
  • Apigee (SaaS and OPDK)
  • Azure API Management (APIM)
  • AWS API Gateway
• Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, and scalability of API gateway infrastructure across regions and environments
• Manage API lifecycle concerns including security, traffic management, throttling, versioning, and observability
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Cloud Infrastructure & AMI Management
Manage API gateway infrastructure hosted on AWS and Azure, with solid ownership of:

• AMI creation, rotation, and patching
• Zero downtime upgrades and rolling deployments
• Ensure infrastructure meets security, resiliency, and compliance standards
• Use Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) as the default for all platform changes

AI First Operations & Automation
Treat automation and AI as the first option, not an afterthought

• Apply AI driven and AIOps capabilities to:
• Detect anomalies and traffic issues across API gateways
• Predict failures and capacity risks
• Reduce alert noise and accelerate root cause analysis
• Build self healing mechanisms and automated runbooks for common API gateway failure scenarios
• Continuously eliminate manual operational work through intelligent automation

Production Support & Incident Ownership

• Independently own ServiceNow P1 and P2 incidents related to API gateway platforms
• Lead incident triage, communication, and resolution during high severity outages
• Perform deep root cause analysis and ensure permanent fixes through automation and platform improvements
• Participate in on call rotations and act as an escalation point for API platform issues

Observability & Reliability

• Design and operate observability for API gateways using:
  • OpenSearch
  • Dynatrace
  • CloudWatch
  • Splunk
• Track and improve SLIs, SLOs, latency, error rates, and traffic patterns for APIs
• Use data and AI insights to proactively improve platform reliability

Security & Access Management

• Ensure solid authentication and authorization for API gateways (IAM, OAuth, mTLS, secrets management)
• Enforce API security policies and partner with security teams to meet enterprise standards

Technical Leadership

• Act as the technical owner for API gateway operations and automation strategy
• Mentor engineers and influence platform practices across teams
• Work closely with application, product, SRE, and security teams

Required Qualifications:

• Solid hands on experience managing API Gateways:
  • Apigee (including OPDK)
  • Azure API Management (APIM)
  • AWS API Gateway
• Experience with high availability, AMI rotations, and platform resilience
• Deep experience in AWS and/or Azure cloud infrastructure
• Solid experience with OpenSearch, Dynatrace, CloudWatch, and Splunk
• Solid understanding of authentication, authorization, and API security
• Solid automation mindset using Terraform, Ansible, and CI/CD
• Proven ownership of ServiceNow P1/P2 production incidents
• Proven excellent communication and cross team collaboration skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of experience in cloud, platform, DevOps, or SRE roles
• Experience applying AI/AIOps to API traffic analysis and incident response
• Proven experience running large scale, mission critical API platforms
• Knowledge of Networking and firewall troubleshooting
• Basic Java skills for debugging or platform extensions

What Success Looks Like in This Role

• API Gateways are highly available, secure, and scalable
• AMI rotations and upgrades are automated and routine, not risky events
• Incidents are detected early and resolved faster using AI assisted operations
• Manual intervention is continuously reduced through automation and self healing
• Teams trust the API platform as a reliable, well run enterprise service

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.