We are seeking a Principal Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to define and scale reliability practices across large-scale cloud platforms.
This is a senior individual contributor role focused on setting SRE standards, influencing engineering teams, and driving reliability through automation and AI-enabled operations.
This is a remote role with preference for candidates located in MN.
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.
What Makes This Role Unique:- Define and influence SRE best practices across multiple platforms and teams
- Drive adoption of AI-enabled reliability and operational innovation (AIOps)
- Work on mission-critical healthcare systems at enterprise scale
- Blend hands-on technical depth with strategic influence
- Partner across engineering, platform, and security teams to elevate reliability standards
Primary Responsibilities:- Define and drive SRE standards across teams
- Lead implementation of:
- SLOs, SLIs, error budgets
- Observability (metrics, logs, tracing)
- Resiliency patterns (failover, self-healing)
- Improve reliability through automation and proactive risk mitigation
- Drive reliability practices in Azure environments
- Apply AIOps (anomaly detection, intelligent alerting, automation)
- Influence engineering teams without direct authority
What Success Looks Like:- Established consistent SRE practices and standards across teams
- Improved system reliability, observability, and incident response maturity
- Delivered measurable gains in uptime, performance, and operational efficiency
- Enabled AI-driven improvements in reliability and operations
Required Qualifications:- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- 10+ years of experience in Site Reliability Engineering, Software Engineering, or Cloud Engineering
- Experience influencing multiple teams or platforms without direct ownership
- Demonstrated experience improving reliability through automation, tooling, or AI-enabled approaches
- Proven hands-on expertise in:
- Reliability engineering (SLOs, SLIs, incident management, observability)
- Distributed systems in cloud environments (Azure preferred)
- Solid understanding of system design, performance, scalability, and failure modes
Preferred Qualifications: - Experience implementing AI/ML or AIOps solutions in production environments (e.g., anomaly detection, alert optimization, automation)
- Experience standardizing observability frameworks (e.g., OpenTelemetry or similar)
- Experience working in complex enterprise or regulated environments
- Background supporting large-scale, mission-critical systems
- Proven ability to influence senior technical stakeholders
- Location: MN
*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.
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 $xx,xxx to $xx,xxx 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.
