NIKUNJ PATEL
UnitedHealth Group / Optum
Chanhassen,MN
1
Certification
19
years of professional experience
Dynamic and results-driven IT leader with extensive experience in cloud infrastructure, Azure, security, data platforms, and emerging AI technologies. Skilled in designing, implementing, and optimizing enterprise technology solutions. Expertise in aligning technology strategies with business objectives ensures delivery of scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions that drive organizational success. Recognized for fostering operational excellence through cloud modernization, infrastructure automation, AI-enabled process improvements, and robust security governance initiatives. Proven track record of leading high-performing teams in supporting mission-critical Azure and Databricks environments.
Work History
Sr. Software Engineering Manager
4 Years 8 Months- Experienced and results-driven Technology Leader with a strong background in IT Infrastructure, Cloud Operations, Security, and Platform Services. Proven success in leading high-performing teams, delivering reliable and secure technology solutions, and driving operational excellence. Skilled in cloud cost optimization, infrastructure automation, vulnerability management, and service delivery. Passionate about building strong teams, improving operational efficiency, and enabling business success through technology and AI-driven innovation.
- Implemented cloud governance, resource rightsizing, and consumption management practices that improved cost efficiency, accountability, and budget predictability across Azure environments.
- Directed Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and automation initiatives, significantly reducing manual operational effort, accelerating deployments, and improving infrastructure consistency.
- Led cross-functional teams spanning Azure, Databricks, networking, security, and operations, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
- Established proactive monitoring, incident management, and operational excellence frameworks that improved platform stability and reduced service disruptions.
- Partnered with security, architecture, and application teams to remediate critical vulnerabilities, strengthen compliance controls, and enhance overall cloud security posture.
- Supported cloud modernization and migration initiatives, enabling scalable, secure, and resilient Azure and Databricks platforms for multiple business applications.
- Mentored and developed engineering talent through knowledge-sharing, process improvements, and technical leadership, resulting in increased team productivity and stakeholder satisfaction.
Lead Software Engineer
5 Years- Provide leadership, team building, architect, design and developed cutting edge services for IE and OMMS products. Implementation and modernizing state’s legacy solution to modern single application, creating higher quality results, provider more comprehensive case management, store verification documentation electronically and reduced costs. Involved and leading the emerging technology services module to build the common framework for BPM and common services.
- Closely collaborate with business leadership, legacy system support teams to gather requirements, reviewing complex business rules, analyzing, designing, implementing BRMS decision services.
- Involved with project manager and architecture team on providing optimized design for BRMS XOM, Object modeling, project estimation.
- Following the DevOps approach and implementing the CICD jenkins pipeline to build, test, deploy code.
- Using the onsite and offshore team, providing technical direction, manage the sprint iterations and PI planning.
- Performed code reviews and provide technical mentoring to developers on REST, Spring boot services.
- Responsible for performing the defect triage, production fixes and data fixes.
- Responsible for doing POC’s on Camunda BPM tool. Implemented BPMN workflow and integrated with various components. Explored and implemented task lists, decision tables, human tasks to orchestrated and automate various processes.
- Providing status update to higher management for current state and future propose improved state of system.
- Working with Enterprise Architects to containerize all required applications.
- Working with mongo DB, MySQL, and Oracle databases for different module of Medicaid system.
- Working on POC for On-Prem azure migrations and integration.
- Developing healthcare application and rules for use of program like Medicaid, MAGI, CHIP, SNAP, TANF and Childcare.
- Creating the Aha, Rally features, creating and maintain product backlog with User Stories, Capabilities and Features.
- Conducting the daily stand-up calls, remediation of impediments, facilitating sprint retrospective sessions and implementing the feedback.
- Developed ODM Rule projects using different rule artifacts on the development phase (includes BAL, TRL, Decision Tree, Decision Table, and Function Tasks).
- Upgrading IBM ODM 8.6 Decision services to 8.9.1 version and migration from XML based payload to JSON based payload.
Technical Lead
6 Years- Implemented various BRMS solutions / projects at current financial client assignment across multiple lines of businesses such Retirement Plan Transaction, Enrollment, Mutual Funds, and Confirmation. Successfully implemented BRMS platform upgrade project across 6 to ODM 8.5 along with IBM rule execution and other supporting component upgrades. To boost the BRMS performance and business rules visibility, maintenance implemented BRMS optimization project involved simplification of rules, XOM, BOM, schema optimization, verbalization simplification. Build whole production support team and its various operations like incident problem management using service now, ITIL. Build onsite and offshore 24
- 7 rotation based supporting teams’ operations. Designed and implemented BRMS platform DR infrastructure and DR capabilities.
- Implemented the different integration patterns to call ODM rule engine like spring batch, spring integration JMS, SOAP web service, REST service, embedded solutions.
- Effectively designed and implemented business rules through Rule grouping into packages, Rule Authoring (Action Rules, Decision Trees, Decision Tables, Functions, and Rule flows), Rule Execution, Testing and Validation using and creating DVS Scenarios in Studio and RTS and test rules.
- Work with the Business SMEs and Analysts on the Rules Harvesting (Discovery and Analysis). Created templates for Rule Analysis document for BRMS rule discovery process, BRMS project plan.
- Implemented BRMS implementation for agile methodology.
- End-to-end project development, delivery and daily task assignments and tracking and delivering various platform metrics like monthly rule count, service volume, defects and managing platform artifacts MRT, Rule Reports, TDDs, Invocation documents.
Software Developer
4 Years- CHANNEL -Health Supplies Management Software was developed for an UN agency to proper management of the flow of supplies through a country’s public health distribution channel ensuring product availability and in minimizing stock-outs.
- Interacting and brainstorming with the functional analyst to understand the existing PC-based applications. Obtain familiarity with the applications functionalities, database structure and coding mechanism.
- Analyzing the requirements and prepare functional and technical requirements documents for application development. Also, generate requirements document for off-line data entry interface as well as data synchronization.
- Based on the requirements documents, generating a plan to include design, development, test, and deployment methodologies.
- Design and developed database schema for both the applications using MySQL database system.
- Developed web-based versions of Channel applications mainly using Java programming language using the Jakarta Struts framework.
- In a team for development of the JSP, Action classes, and the middle tier following the Struts / Tiles framework and velocity templates.
- Developed a customized log manager using log4j API.
- Involved and performed in unit integration, bug fixing, acceptance testing.
Sr. Software Developer
2 Years- Modernize the OPSYS application (15-year-old mainframe-based application) which performs the international operations for the shipment processing. Analyze the existing Cobol code and dig out all the business rules and externalized them to ILOG BRMS to make available for the Business users. Move all the OPSYS functionality to the distributed tier to reduce the expensive mainframe MIPS, better maintainability of business rules.
- Responsible for extracting Business Rules from the existing OPSYS COBOL code, analyze rules and create the Domain Object Model for ILOG interface.
- Design the Business Rules Architecture, Rule Flow and developing the ILOG Rule Service to provide rule execution service to perform the business rule-based function within OPSYS application.
- Design the Asynchronous communication for the ILOG Rules service through MDB (message-driven bean) EJB and integrate it to ILOG Rule service.
- Created Technical specifications for business rules for OPSYS application.
- Defined object model and data mapping interfaces using Java; followed UML standards, created class and sequence diagrams.
- Worked on the Rule governance policy, Data Synchronization policy within OPSYS application.
- Developed the JUnit based Unit test framework for ILOG Rules.
- Design the Data Access Layer for Rule service to validate the input data against DB2 database. Data Access layer uses JCS caching system to access the database which reduces the expensive database calls to DB2 database.
- Developed business rule projects using BOM and Java based XOM which communicates with client calls though simple stateless session bean.
- Created test cases / scenarios Specifications for various Shipment Validation Business Rules and executed using Rule Scenario Manager (RSM).
- Involved in best practices and code improvement process.
- Build and maintain the development, QA and staging environments for the OPSYS application.
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Computer Science And Engineering
Skills
AI Driven
Security and Vulnerabilities Management
People and Budget Management
Team Leadership
Direct
Software Eng. and Programming
System Analysis
Implementation
Solutions Architecture
IT Project Management
Process Optimization
Cloud native
Security best practices
DevOps practices
Technical leadership
Certification
- Java Certified Developer
- IBM WebSphere Operation Decision Manager Certified
- Microsoft Azure Fundamental Certified.
TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS
Azure Cloud Services, Azure Databricks, Azure DevOps, AI & Generative AI, Cloud Infrastructure & Operations, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Security & Governance, Vulnerability Management, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity, Platform Engineering, IT Service Management (ITSM), Monitoring & Observability, Enterprise Networking, Server & Storage Administration.
Timeline
Sr. Software Engineering Manager
UnitedHealth Group / Optum
01.2022 - CurrentRead More
Lead Software Engineer
UnitedHealth Group / Optum
01.2017 - 01.2022Read More
Technical Lead
TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association)
01.2011 - 01.2017Read More
Sr. Software Developer
UPS (United Parcel Service)
01.2009 - 01.2011Read More
Software Developer
United Nations
01.2008 - 01.2012Read More
Visvesvaraya Technological University
Bachelor of Engineering from Computer Science And Engineering
Read More