Principal Quality Engineer

Requisition Number: 2355419
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.
As a Principal Quality Engineer within the Contact Ctr Advancement division, you will be the technical lead driving our end-to-end quality engineering strategy and software testing frameworks. You will guide highly technical teams in architecting advanced automation systems, deploying intelligent testing mechanisms, and integrating automated AI-powered workflows. In this role, you will elevate our quality standards for critical customer engagement platforms, ensuring that our systems are highly resilient, scalable, and capable of delivering outstanding experiences to millions of users.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Establish, lead, and advance the overall quality engineering strategy, automated testing frameworks, and quality assurance standards for Contact Center Advancement platforms
• Design, implement, and maintain advanced test automation frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, or Appium) to ensure high-quality software delivery
• Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions, test automations, and intelligent quality platforms to address complex quality challenges with an emphasis on the responsible use of AI
• Evaluate emerging technology and quality testing trends (such as AI-driven test generation, predictive analytics, and automated defect discovery) to inform test solution design and strategic innovation
• Leverage approved AI tools to streamline testing workflows, automate repetitive QA tasks, and drive continuous improvement in deployment quality and test coverage
• Collaborate with software engineers, product owners, and architects to integrate quality engineering practices directly into CI/CD pipelines
• Mentor, guide, and support QA engineers and cross-functional teams in automated testing best practices and quality guidelines
• Monitor, track, and report on comprehensive quality metrics, test performance, and delivery readiness to technical and business leadership

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:

• 8+ years of experience in software quality engineering, automated testing, or software development
• 4+ years of experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale test automation frameworks (such as Selenium, Appium, Cucumber, or Cypress)
• 3+ years of experience in a lead or principal role guiding technical quality strategies and mentoring QA engineering teams
• 3+ years of experience working within cloud environments (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP) and integrating test automation with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions)
• 2+ years of experience testing complex distributed systems, microservices, or APIs

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Quality Assurance, or a related technical field
• Certifications in software testing or Agile methodologies (e.g., ISTQB, CSM, SAFe)
• Experience with contact center platforms, telephony software, IVR testing, or customer relationship management (CRM) systems
• Experience utilizing generative AI/LLM development assistants to write, optimize, or debug test scripts and quality dashboards
• Familiarity with AI-driven testing tools, conversational AI validation, chatbot quality assurance, or Natural Language Processing (NLP) model testing
• Excellent technical communication and problem-solving skills, with a proven ability to lead consensus across engineering teams

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 $112,700 to $193,200 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.