Director of Architecture and Data Strategy - Remote

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.

Reporting to the LOB Chief Architect & AI Officer, you will own the data strategy and target‑state data architecture for the Community & State (C&S) line of business - setting direction for how C&S data is modeled, governed, and served, and steering the engineering teams that execute it. You will collaborate with and contribute to UHC- and UHG‑level data strategies and work streams, ensuring C&S both aligns with and helps shape enterprise direction.

You'll stay close enough to the craft to validate key assumptions yourself, while driving delivery through the teams around you rather than through personal execution.

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.

• Own the target‑state data architecture for the Community & State line of business, with a clear path from current to future state, and contribute to UHC- and UHG‑level data strategy and work streams
• Serve as the translation layer between business and technology - interpret business use cases and problems‑to‑be‑solved and determine what they mean for data: how it must be sourced, modeled, governed, and served
• Translate technology and data strategy into business terms, driving alignment across C&S leaders and stakeholders on the rationale behind architectural direction, trade‑offs, and investment
• Direct and review the pilots and proof‑of‑concept work that validate architectural recommendations - guiding engineering teams and validating key assumptions yourself before the organization adopts them
• Design semantic and metadata layers, ontologies, and knowledge systems that let humans and AI agents reason over the same data, working with engineering teams to prove them out
• Evaluate emerging AI research, technologies, and architecture trends - including RAG, agentic patterns, and vector/embedding systems - to inform solution design and strategic investment decisions
• Author reference architectures, design patterns, and data contracts that C&S engineering teams adopt and build against
• Establish data governance, data quality, privacy, security, and AI‑safety frameworks that protect business assets while accelerating delivery for the teams building on top of them
• Drive architectural alignment across the C&S engineering teams through technical influence, documentation, and validated proof points rather than delivery authority
• Partner with engineering, security, legal, compliance, and infrastructure leaders to inform build/buy/retire decisions and shape data platform investments for C&S
• Model responsible, efficient AI adoption and set the expectation for how C&S teams use enterprise‑approved AI tools and automation platforms

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.

• 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, data analytics, information management, or closely related technical disciplines
• 5+ years defining,…