Optum Tech, part of UnitedHealth Group, is hiring a Principal Architect to own the digital chat and messaging architecture on Amazon Connect across web and mobile experiences. You will design and implement chat contact flows, build chatbot-assisted digital experiences, and lead security, privacy, and compliance-by-design for our digital channels.
What You'll Do
- Own digital chat/messaging architecture on Amazon Connect across web and mobile experiences, with support for asynchronous customer conversations and modern digital channels.
- Design and implement chat contact flows that deliver consistent, brand-aligned customer experiences: intent capture, authentication/verification, routing, queue handling, and bot-to-agent handoff.
- Build chatbot-assisted digital experiences in Amazon Connect chat flows, including intent/slot design, fulfillment, and robust fallback/escalation patterns.
- Implement rich digital interactions to reduce friction, enable self-service, improve resolution, and increase containment in chat.
- Enable an effective human agent chat experience: configure and optimize agent workflows in agent workspace/CCP, and integrate customer context (CRM/cases/knowledge) to reduce handling time and improve resolution quality.
- Define integration patterns between Amazon Connect and enterprise platforms (CRM, identity, customer profile/data services).
- Establish observability and conversation analytics for chat: logging/tracing, dashboards, transcript access, and improvement loops using conversational analytics (chat sentiment, categorization, summaries/search).
- Lead security, privacy, and compliance-by-design for digital channels (PII handling, encryption, access controls, retention/redaction policies where applicable).
- Act as a senior individual contributor leader: drive design reviews, publish reference patterns/standards, mentor engineers, and influence stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Contact Center Operations.
- Assess new AWS Connect capabilities and lead internal collaboration to determine technical and business value.
What We're Looking For
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering (or equivalent practical experience).
- 5+ years of experience in solution architecture and/or software engineering for digital customer experience, messaging, chat, or contact-center platforms.
- 3+ years hands-on experience implementing Amazon Connect digital/chat solutions in production (chat flows, routing, agent workflows), or equivalent CCaaS experience plus demonstrable Amazon Connect depth.
- 3+ years of experience building or integrating customer chat experiences into web/mobile applications using platform APIs/SDKs and secure authentication/session patterns (including knowledge of Connect chat session initiation and participant connectivity concepts).
- 3+ years of experience implementing conversational AI for chat (Amazon Lex or equivalent), including conversation design, fulfillment, and escalation to human agents.
- 3+ years of experience improving agent chat workflows (agent workspace/CCP) and integrating agent tooling with CRM/cases/knowledge to improve resolution and reduce rework.
- Experience with AI in engineering workflows (standards, guardrails, reusable prompts/patterns, evaluation/quality checks) and using it to accelerate modernization roadmaps and improve developer productivity without compromising quality.
- Solid AWS fundamentals (IAM, Lambda, CloudWatch, API patterns) and solid integration skills (REST/event-driven, data contracts, error handling).
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence: produce architecture artifacts, run technical workshops, and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Operational mindset: monitoring/alerting, incident support, root cause analysis, and change safety for customer-facing digital channels.
Nice to Have
- AWS Certifications (Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer, Developer, or specialty equivalents).
- Experience with Contact Lens for chat analytics, including transcript search, categorization, and integration patterns for consuming analytics outputs at scale (e.g., streaming/near-real-time pipelines).
- Experience designing asynchronous messaging behaviors and multi-step conversations (resume conversations, handle long gaps, maintain context across devices/channels).
- Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD (Terraform/CloudFormation/CDK, automated testing/validation of flows and integrations).
- Experience partnering with UX/content/conversation designers to improve chat usability, tone, and containment without harming resolution outcomes.
- Ability to architect cross-channel experiences that minimize customer effort, building consistent UX and operational workflows across chat, human-assisted chat, and voice, with unified routing, reporting, and quality insights.
Technical Stack
- Amazon Connect
- AWS
- Amazon Lex
- CRM
- AWS Lambda
- CloudWatch
- REST
- Event-driven architecture
- Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform/CloudFormation/CDK)
- CI/CD
Team & Environment
You will influence stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Contact Center Operations.
Benefits & Compensation
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Incentive and recognition programs
- Equity stock purchase
- 401k contribution
- Compensation: $134,600 to $230,800 annually
Work Mode
This is a hybrid position. Locations: U.S.
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.
