Director of AI/ML Engineering

Optum is a global organisation 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.

As a Fortune 5 business, we’re one of the world’s leading healthcare companies. There are no limits here on the resources you’ll have or the challenges you’ll encounter. 

We have been supporting global healthcare systems from Ireland and the UK for more than 20 years, building a dynamic and diverse team of more than 2,100 talented individuals. With a continued record of growth and stability, we’re on the constant lookout for fresh talent to join our expanding teams.

Optum is looking for an experienced, curious, and self-motivated individual to lead a team that will be responsible for the development of new products and services for the organization. Partnering with business stakeholders, data science teams and technology teams, you will build strong relationships with our internal stakeholders, acquiring knowledge of the business and driving strategic platform build. 

You will join a team of product managers, product owners, data scientists, and analysts who are responsible for building the pricing platform for over $100 Billion of prescription drug spend in the US Market annually. The team bring integrity, experience and calmness to what is a mammoth business. We have thousands of US clients, each with thousands of FDA approved drug prices to be managed.  We are using our predictive models to optimize millions of individual drug prices to ensure we deliver value for clients and ultimately people who are filling over 150 million prescriptions per year.

We are accountable to manage one of the most complex areas of UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest companies in the world. We have to bring initiative, innovative thinking and curiosity to constantly evolve in a highly regulated environment. The changes we make have impact the next day for millions of people in the US market. 

Our team culture is built on trust. We give our team the space they need to deliver results and the environment to ensure they can have fun doing it.

As a Director of AI/ML Engineering, you will oversee the completion of the platform build, taking development and accountability of a key new product in house.  You will lead the scaling and build out of the key product, applying it to new business siutations using a combination of AI and machine learning techniques. You will leverage your expertise in product management and leadership skills to guide and mentor your team, ensuring the successful implementation and continuous improvement of these strategies.

Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

Primary Responsibilities:  

• Lead the OptumRx AI/ML CAT product team in Ireland 

• Be a hands-on technical leader, actively contributing to model design, review and critical technical decision, and architecture.

• Optimize models for performance, scalability and efficiency

• Ability to take research whitepapers to production. Solid technical leadership to drive the Document Analysis team, which includes both data scientists and AI engineers. 

• Drives excellence and standardization across the data science team with a focus on skills development, training and career progression

• Mange the technical product owners, including overseeing their relationships with business owners, and the scrum masters

• Own the relationship with Optum Tech, who provides development resources, is accountable for data security, connectivity, etc.  

• Coordinates Optum Tech’s software development and maintenance with the work of the Document Analysis team 

• Take primary ownership of the suite of data science and AI assets built within the team 

• Take primary ownership of the pipeline of data science solutions assigned to the team – ensuring consistent use of tooling and processes across the team.

• Provide strategic and technical direction aligned to analytic efforts around AI/ML

• Stay current on internal and external technological advances in AI and advanced analytics that can be applied to document processing

• Drive inclusion and diversity as part of enhancing continued development of a strong diverse team culture

You will 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 providing development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related field, or a Master’s degree combined with significant industry experience

• Experience leading deep learning teams in a corporate setting, driving AI strategies, and delivering business impact

• Proficiency in AI/ML and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch

• Proven knowledge of deep learning, AI and ML architectures

• Expert ability to identify business objectives and fashion analytic solutions around these objectives

Preferred Qualifications:

• Appreciation of ethical and regulatory considerations in data science and willingness to apply them in practice 

Soft Skills:

• Ability to communicate technical results to a diverse audience, with a connection back to the business objectives and outcomes

• Natural curiosity to learn more, dig into details, and understand the key drivers of emerging trends and challenges 

• Effective coaching of team members

• Ability to accurately communicate status

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.

All telecommuters will be required to adhere to the UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

 

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 marginalised 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: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2025 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.

 

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