Senior Director, AI Enablement - Remote

UnitedHealth Group is a health care and well-being company that's dedicated to improving the health outcomes of millions around the world. We are comprised of two distinct and complementary businesses, UnitedHealthcare and Optum, working to build a better health system for all. Here, your contributions matter as they will help transform health care for years to come. Make an impact with a team that shares your passion for helping others. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Senior Director, AI Enablement to help shape the next phase of our People reimagination as we move toward an AI-first HR operating model. This leader will build and lead the People-side capability responsible for identifying, designing, governing, and scaling AI-enabled experiences, intelligent workflows, and agentic solutions across the People function.

This role sits within the People Digital capability and will serve as the senior leader responsible for translating AI opportunity into practical, responsible, and measurable People outcomes. The role will work across HR COEs, shared services, payroll, People Analytics, Strategy and Operations, Culture, Tech, Legal, Privacy, Risk, and enterprise AI teams to ensure that AI is deployed in ways that improve employee and manager experience, strengthen service delivery, reduce operational friction, and maintain strong controls.

This is not a pure technology role and it is not a traditional HRIS role. It requires a leader who can connect business strategy, workflow design, AI opportunity, operating model change, and governance into a coherent People agenda.

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

Primary Responsibilities:

• AI strategy and portfolio leadership
  • Define and lead the People-side AI strategy in alignment with the broader People reimagination and AI-first HR operating model 
  • Build and manage the People AI use-case portfolio, including prioritization of copilots, agents, intelligent workflows, and AI-enabled service experiences 
  • Identify where AI can create meaningful value for employees, managers, shared services, COEs, and the People leadership team 
  • Establish prioritization criteria based on business impact, feasibility, risk, readiness, and alignment to enterprise strategy 
• Intelligent workflow and agentic experience design
  • Lead the design of intelligent workflows that connect employee intent, policy logic, service delivery, and platform execution across the People technology ecosystem 
  • Define how AI-enabled experiences should operate across Eva (internal orchestration layer), MyHR (Oracle HCM), ServiceNow, and related People technologies 
  • Oversee People-side design for conversational flows, prompt intent, escalation logic, guided experiences, and next-best-action capabilities 
  • Ensure workflows are designed to improve self-service, manager-service, shared services efficiency, and end-to-end journey outcomes 
• Governance, controls, and risk management
  • Establish and lead the People AI governance model, including risk classification, human-in-the-lead requirements, review gates, and control standards 
  • Partner with Legal, Privacy, Risk, Security, and enterprise AI governance teams to ensure AI-enabled HR solutions are safe, compliant, auditable, and trustworthy 
  • Define clear boundaries for where AI can advise, automate, recommend, escalate, or stop 
  • Ensure People AI use cases are grounded in approved policy, trusted business data, and appropriate knowledge sources 
• Operating model and cross-functional integration
  • Serve as the primary People Digital leader for AI across HR COEs, shared services, payroll, People Analytics, and Tech 
  • Partner with Strategy and Operations to translate process intent into intelligent workflows 
  • Partner with Employee Experience / Culture to ensure AI-enabled experiences align to persona needs and experience principles 
  • Partner with shared services to redesign work across agent, human-agent, and human tiers 
  • Partner with Tech on enterprise AI platforms, architecture, integration patterns, security, and reusable technical capabilities 
• Change, adoption, and value realization
  • Define what success looks like for People AI initiatives, including experience, productivity, service, risk, and value measures 
  • Partner with adoption and change leaders to support rollout, readiness, communications, and behavior change 
  • Build a measurable value realization model for AI investments across the People function 
  • Monitor adoption, outcomes, feedback, and risk signals to continuously improve the portfolio 
• Team leadership
  • Build and lead a high-performing team responsible for AI product leadership, intelligent workflow design, governance, knowledge readiness, and business-side AI enablement 
  • Establish operating rhythms, role clarity, and ways of working across People Digital and partner teams 
  • Develop talent and capability in emerging areas such as prompt and conversation design, intelligent workflow design, AI governance, and HR knowledge architecture 
  • Serve as a thought leader and trusted advisor to senior People and Tech leaders on the future of AI in HR 
    

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of significant leadership experience in HR technology, digital product, workflow design, service transformation, AI enablement, or related fields 
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional transformation in a large enterprise environment 
• Experience with AI-enabled product design, intelligent workflows, conversational experiences, copilots, agents, or enterprise automation 
• Experience working in highly matrixed environments across business, technology, operations, analytics, legal, and risk partners 
• Solid understanding of HR operating models, shared services, service delivery, and employee / manager journeys 
• Demonstrated solid executive communication, influence, and change leadership skills 
• Demonstrated success building business-led digital or AI capabilities, not just supporting them from a technical or project perspective 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in a Fortune 500 or similarly complex enterprise environment 
• Experience with People technology ecosystems that include platforms such as Oracle HCM, ServiceNow, enterprise data and AI platforms, and virtual agent / orchestration tools 
• Experience designing or governing AI use cases in sensitive or regulated business environments 
• Experience leading service transformation or shared services enablement programs 
• Experience establishing AI governance frameworks, human-in-the-loop designs, or model risk controls 
• Familiarity with workforce data governance, semantic stewardship, and the role of trusted business logic in AI-enabled solutions 

*All Telecommuters 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 $159,300 - $273,200 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.