Senior Digital Accessibility Engineer - PDF UA

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) partners with teams across Optum and UnitedHealthcare to build accessible solutions. We are seeking a passionate, detail-driven Senior Digital Accessibility Engineer with advanced expertise in PDF UA compliance and remediation. This role focuses on enabling teams to create high-quality, standards-compliant digital documents, with a solid emphasis on accessible PDFs.

In this role, you will collaborate with leadership to promote accessible document design, educate teams on PDF UA requirements, and lead initiatives to advance digital accessibility practices. Responsibilities include hands-on PDF UA remediation, developing compliant templates, and leveraging AI and automation to streamline processes. You'll contribute to enterprise-wide projects, working groups, and research efforts focused on accessible document solutions. Success in this role requires empathy for people with disabilities, a commitment to inclusive design, and curiosity about emerging technologies. You'll also share your expertise through mentoring, training, and thought leadership across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead manual PDF UA remediation efforts, ensuring documents meet international accessibility standards and are fully usable with assistive technologies
• Design, develop, and maintain PDF templates optimized for accessibility, in collaboration with content creators and developers
• Advise product and document teams on best practices for PDF UA compliance, including tagging, logical reading order, alt text, and metadata requirements
• Assess and validate digital properties - websites, mobile apps, desktop apps, and especially PDF documents - for compliance with WCAG and PDF UA standards
• Stay informed of AI tools and automated PDF remediation platforms, evaluating their effectiveness and integrating them into PDF accessibility workflows
• Document assessment results, remediation steps, and compliance status using established reporting frameworks and templates
• Present findings and recommendations to internal teams and external clients, providing education on PDF UA requirements and available tools
• Identify accessibility gaps in document designs and advocate for the adoption of accessible PDF templates and design patterns
• Participate in research and development to improve PDF accessibility processes with emerging AI technologies and automation
• Develop and deliver training on PDF UA compliance, manual remediation techniques, and AI-assisted document accessibility
• 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 a related field equivalent industry experience also considered
• 3+ years in roles focused on digital accessibility engineering, with 2+ years specializing in PDF UA remediation and template creation
• Hands-on experience with assistive technologies including JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, ZoomText, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and related speech recognition applications
• Experience in manual PDF UA remediation and accessible PDF template creation
• Experience assessing and validating a broad range of digital properties (web, mobile, desktop, documents) for accessibility compliance
• Experience collaborating with teams unfamiliar with accessibility and inclusive design concepts
• Solid knowledge of WCAG and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines, particularly as they pertain to PDF documents
• Up-to-date knowledge of emerging AI and automated tools for document accessibility
• Advanced understanding of PDF UA standards, requirements, and common accessibility issues in digital documents
• Advanced proficiency with document accessibility tools such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, PAC, axesPDF, CommonLook, and AI-assisted remediation platforms
• Proven solid commitment to continuous learning and advancing document accessibility standards within the organization
• Demonstrated ability to use and evaluate AI tools and automated PDF remediation software for document accessibility
• Demonstrated excellent communication skills for presenting technical findings to non-technical audiences and training peers and clients
• Demonstrated organizational skills for managing multiple priorities and projects independently and within diverse teams