Principal Digital Accessibility Engineer

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.  

Optum Consumer Experience and Digital Product team focuses on advancing a digital-first Optum, championing Optum's priority to be the ultimate health destination for consumers. We deliver consumer-centric experiences and optimal digital products that drive business growth by connecting enterprise solutions, improving digital self-service, and creating a comprehensive view of the consumer and their needs. We leverage technology, consumer-centered design, data and analytics to improve the consumer experience with the health care system, making it easier to access, and afford, high-quality care.

Our UnitedHealth Group mission - helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health care system work better for everyone - serves as our why; our values unite us around how we will achieve it. When we follow our mission and live our values, we deliver quality solutions that will help change the health care system for the better.

To ensure our digital experiences are inclusive and consumer-centric, the Accessibility Center of Excellence (ACOE) leads teams in building accessible solutions. The ACOE provides guidance, training, and talent to product teams across Optum and UHC, helping ensure our products are usable by everyone. The team is seeking energetic, motivated, and resourceful individuals to join their mission. As a Principal Digital Accessibility Engineer, you will collaborate with leadership to promote the need for accessible products and services across the enterprise. You will educate and train product teams on specific accessibility requirements and tools, focusing on scaling and empowering teams to handle accessibility work independently. You will also use AI to enhance accessibility processes and tools.

Success in this role requires empathy for people with disabilities, a passion for product improvement, curiosity, and the ability to mentor and share knowledge effectively.

The positions in the user experience job function are all related to user-centered design - a process to help ensure products and services meet the needs of customers, employees and other users. This job function is a collection of specialties each with a unique skill set. These roles may involve UX design, visual design, user research, accessibility, front-end development, or data visualization. Colleagues in these roles use their knowledge of interface design, research methods, accessibility guidelines, and current programming techniques to design, research, develop and assess products and services to enhance the overall user experience and create usable and accessible digital experiences.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Reviews the work of others
• Develops innovative approaches
• Sought out as expert
• Serves as a leader/ mentor
• Under the guidance of the Accessibility Center of Excellence leadership, collaborate with product teams across the enterprise to promote the need for accessible products and services.
• Serve as an accessibility knowledge expert, providing direction and mentoring to team members and clients about operations, self-sufficiency, and complex accessibility practices.
• Leverage knowledge and experience to continuously evaluate and recommend improvements to the accessibility processes, tools used, and training provided.
• Provide leadership of key projects, such as the Engineering Standards (for mobile or web), guiding the research and documentation efforts of other team members, as they address best practices for usability and accessibility.
• Create a communication plan for sharing decisions and promoting decisions made by the Engineering Standards team across the enterprise.
• When called on for high priority situations where litigation may be involved, perform the duties of an accessibility subject matter expert.
• Help to innovate and create new tools for use by the Accessibility Center of Excellence team.
• Help to create efficiencies by developing better processes, templates, and deliverables for use by the Accessibility Center of Excellence team and digital product teams throughout the enterprise.
• Research and stay aware of new development frameworks for the purpose of assisting developers in creating accessible products.
• Write curriculum and lead accessibility training for peers and clients.
• Identify new opportunities to support and contribute to the growth of the Accessibility Center of Excellence.
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• BA/BS in information technology, information design, computer science, human computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, quality assurance, assistive technology or related field, or equivalent industry training and experience
• 11+ years of experience in software development
• 6+ years working in a fast-paced and highly collaborative development environment with experience in large, complex software or web applications
• 4+ years as a digital accessibility engineer  
• Experience with modern front-end frameworks (e.g., Angular, Backbone, React, React Native).  
• Experience with leveraging AI technologies to enhance accessibility processes and tools, including the ability to train and mentor teams on the effective use of AI in accessibility work
• Advanced knowledge of user-centered design, Agile methodology, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript  
• Expert familiarity with WCAG
• Proficiency with assistive technologies (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, ZoomText, Dragon NaturallySpeaking)  
• Proven solid motivation to improve digital experiences for people with disabilities  
• Proven ability to work both independently and with diverse teams  
• Proven excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, adaptable to different audiences  
• Demonstrated leadership in accessibility-focused design and development efforts  

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.

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