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 diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start  Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Optum AI is chartered to drive value on high impact enterprise AI problems, democratize AI through the enterprise ML platform, accelerate the adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) and drive Responsible AI. Projecting to deliver $8.4B of benefit value over the next 5 years through these efforts as well as reduce risk through safe, accurate, and unbiased AI, this is a key focus of the enterprise.

As the Principal AI/ML Engineer, you will be responsible for the development and execution of the vision for enabling the design and deployment of high impact enterprise AI problems, including problems related to disease prediction and identification, patient engagement, and optimization of clinical trials using both structured and unstructured (text) data. As a thought leader, you will establish guidance on how to develop, execute, and deploy AI models in compliance with enterprise standards. As a subject matter expert, you will work closely with other engineering teams and leaders to drive the adoption of quality and efficiency standards.

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the vision for engineering platforms, and reusable code that will be used by thousands of other engineers for automation and improved efficiency of AI/ML development

• Stay up to date with latest technologies and literature recommending solutions to improve business goals

• Evangelize the benefits of the AI models and platforms built in our team to drive adoption for employees and functional roles across the UHG enterprise including technology, operations, marketing, legal, compliance, people team, internal infrastructure, and more

• Mentor data scientists, AI/ML scientists, and other engineers to ensure the delivery of the AI/ML projects, and provide guidance on how to best use specific tools or technologies to achieve the desired results

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to determine applicability of AI to business problems

• Closely collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) team to ensure that the delivered solutions are compliant with the company policies and standards

• Create and manage best practices for ML models integration, orchestration, and deployment, that will ensure secure, consistent, and efficient use of resources across the UHG enterprise, including data versioning, ingress and model output egress, CI/CD pipelines for MLOps and DevOps functions

• Automate the provisioning and configuration of infrastructure resources

• Create documentation for infrastructure design and deployment procedures

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:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Math, Statistics, or a related STEM field with equivalent experience (Either 10+ years of experience in a technical engineering role, or a PhD in Computer Science or a related field and 5+ years engineering role)

• 3+ years of experience focused on AI/ML solutions delivery

• Demonstrated experience leading and implementing AI/ML projects from ideation to delivery, evaluation, and maintenance in production

• Proven experience in Python and one of PySpark or Scala, including demonstrable proficiency of AI/ML frameworks and tools (e.g., MLFlow, TensorFLow, PyTorch)

• Experience developing and deploying data pipelines, machine learning models, or applications on cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, Databricks, AzureML)

• Demonstrated experience in Gen AI solution pipeline engineering, (e.g., RAG) and Large Language Modeling and Transformer Architectures (e.g., BERT, GPT, etc.)

• Proven presentation experience with the ability to explain complex AI/ML concept and results to technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

• A graduate degree (Master’s or PhD) in computer science, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related STEM discipline

• Experience in healthcare (AI)

• Experience working with cross-functional and distributed teams in a global and diverse environment

• Experience in mentoring and coaching AI/ML talent

• Experience in establishing AI/ML best practices, standards, and ethics

• A portfolio of AI/ML publications, patents, or awards

• Working knowledge of Software Development tools and practices including DevOps and CI/CD tools (e.g., Git, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)

• Security and vulnerability management (package scans, remediation)

• Familiarity with data versioning tools (Delta Lake, DVC, LakeFS, etc.)

• Experience with model observability tools for insights into the behavior, performance, and health of your deployed ML models (tracking, alerting, compliance monitoring, etc.)

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Washington, D.C. Residents Only: The salary range for this role is $122,100 to $234,700 annually. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. UnitedHealth Group complies with all minimum wage laws as applicable. In addition to your salary, UnitedHealth Group offers 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 UnitedHealth Group, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives.

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.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.