Remote Software Engineer Java Python Jobs in Evanston, IL

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.

A Lead Software Engineer on the Aikyam Cloud Identity Platform team spends most days designing and building the secure, multi-tenant backend services that power identity and access management for millions of Optum and UnitedHealth Group members. Day-to-day work includes architecting OAuth 2.0 / OIDC flows, developing Java Spring Boot microservices, hardening authentication and authorization pipelines, and driving engineering best practices across the team. You will collaborate closely with product managers, security architects, and peer engineers to deliver highly available, cloud-native services on AWS, while influencing the technical direction of the platform.

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.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Backend Service Development
  • Design, develop, and maintain Java 25 / Spring Boot 4.x microservices that implement OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and SAML 2.0 protocols for the Aikyam identity platform on AWS
  • Build and evolve our OIDC implementation including authorization code, client credentials, and token exchange flows
  • Implement and maintain shared libraries consumed across all platform services
  • Design multi-tenant data models and tenant-scoped configuration patterns; manage tenant lifecycle via the tenants table and Redis cache layer
  • Develop and maintain REST APIs following clean-code and domain-driven design principles; enforce consistent exception handling
  • Write clean, testable code with comprehensive unit and integration test coverage using JUnit 5, Mockito, and Spring Boot Test
  • Work with Quality Engineers to update or create new automated test
  • Participate in and lead code reviews, engineering best practices
  • Implement and harden JOSE (JWT, JWE, JWS) token issuance and validation pipelines using aikyam-jose-security
  • Apply OAuth 2.0 / OIDC security best practices including PKCE, token binding, scope enforcement, and session management
  • Collaborate with the security team to implement and maintain Optum's cryptographic and key-management standards via aikyam-miser
  • Manage database schema migrations using Liquibase (aikyam-idp-liquibase) and maintain backward-compatible SQL changes
  • Drive test strategy including unit, integration, and contract tests to support confident, rapid releases
• Technical Leadership & Collaboration
  • Lead architectural design sessions and produce clear ADRs and technical designs for new platform capabilities
  • Actively participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies: sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, security architects, QE, SRE, and business stakeholders to align on requirements and priorities
  • Communicate technical decisions, risks, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
  • Stay current with industry trends in identity standards (OAuth 2.1, FAPI, SCIM), cloud-native patterns, and Java/Spring ecosystem updates

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:

• 5 years of experience in backend software engineering with Java and Spring Boot (Spring MVC, Spring Security, Spring Data)
• 3 years of experience with OAuth 2.0 / OIDC / SAML 2.0 protocols and identity platform development
• 3 years of experience designing and operating microservices on AWS (EKS, ALB, SES/SNS, Secrets Manager, ECR)
• 3 years of experience with Redis (caching, session management, key-pattern design)
• 3 years of experience with CI/CD pipelines -- Jenkins and/or GitHub Actions -- including Docker image builds and Kubernetes/Helm deployments
• 3 years of experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL / MySQL) and schema migration tooling (Liquibase or Flyway)
• 3 years of experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment
• 2 years of experience with JWT / JOSE standards (JWS, JWE, JWK)
• Proven experience leading technical design and mentoring engineers on a team

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• Experience with Spring Authorization Server or Keycloak as an OIDC provider
• Hands-on experience with Spring Cloud Config Server and multi-environment configuration management
• Experience in the healthcare or financial services industry with exposure to regulatory compliance (HIPAA, SOC 2)
• Experience with Harness or similar GitOps-based deployment orchestration platforms
• Knowledge or exposure to AI, GenAI, or LLMs applied to identity and access management use cases
• Familiarity with FAPI (Financial-grade API) or SCIM 2.0 standards
• Proven contributions to open-source identity or security projects

*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 $112,700 - $193,200 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.

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.