Director AI ML Engineering – Remote

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.

AI/ML Engineers code and develop software that deploys ML models and algorithms into production. Develop AI/ML solutions for the highest impact opportunities across UnitedHealth Group businesses including UnitedHealthcare. Communicate and present complex analytics results and concepts to leadership and internal stakeholders. Employ AI and/or ML that may include natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), semantic understanding, intent classification, computer vision, deep learning, and automatic speech recognition (ASR). The roles in this function will cover all primary development activity across all technology functions that ensure we deliver code with high quality for our applications, products and services and to understand customer needs and to develop product roadmaps.

These roles include, but are not limited to analysis, design, coding, engineering, testing, debugging, standards, methods, tools analysis, documentation, research and development, maintenance, new development, operations and delivery. With every role in the company, each position has a requirement for building quality into every output. This also includes evaluating new tools, new techniques, strategies; Automation of common tasks; build of common utilities to drive organizational efficiency with a passion around technology and solutions and influence of thought and leadership on future capabilities and opportunities to apply technology in new and innovative ways.

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

Team members:

• Have impact at scale: We have the data and resources to make an impact at scale. When our solutions are deployed, they have the potential to make health care system work better for everyone
• Do ground-breaking work: Many of our current projects involve cutting edge ML, NLP and LLM techniques. Generative AI methods for working with structured and unstructured health care data are continuously being developed and improved. We are working in one of the most important frontiers of AI/ML development
• Partner with world-class experts on innovative solutions: Our team members are developing novel AI/ML solutions to business challenges. In some cases, this includes the opportunity to file patents and publish papers about the methods we develop

Primary Responsibilities:

• Meet with business partners to understand requirements and design solution(s) that work best for the problem
• Review AI/ML model ideas and engineering designs, and offer ideas for new approaches
• Work closely with Technical Product Owners to plot required Enablers that support business feature teams on the Architecture Runway, ensuring full lifecycle delivery through the CI/CD pipeline
• Improve the engineering culture of the team
• Provide leadership and accountability for performance and direction through multiple layers of management and senior-level professional staff
• Work often impacts a large business unit or multiple markets/sites
• Raise the bar on excellence in execution in terms of quality, timeliness, and scalability
• Collaborate with counterparts in other geographical locations to ensure smooth execution of critical projects
• Key leadership responsibility to plan and develop talent, processes, and capabilities within the organization
• Recommend applicable technical patterns and solutions aligned with architectural guiding principles and standards through a regular cadence of delivery and continuous improvement initiatives
• Collaborate closely with Product and Capability Architects to align inferred solutions and enterprise architecture to granular technical patterns and solutions
• Govern technical debt and promote balance
• Engage in Product Management to achieve architectural objectives by influencing Product, Capability, and Engineering backlogs
• Provide strong hands-on leadership and accountability for the strategy, development roadmap, and continuous advancement of the Provider Digital Experience
• Oversee and direct the Provider Digital Experience – Bots: large and complex program teams from strategy to delivery
• Build a collaborative culture of partnership across UHC businesses and stakeholders to drive successful execution of the product roadmap and create alignment
• Lead and develop the Voice Bot engineering team to build the next generation of voice bots
• Retain and develop diverse and top talent individuals
• Establish and maintain roadmaps in partnership with other leaders to integrate product capabilities in ways that drive meaningful value for our provider clients
• Support service deployment and closely monitor performance, working with finance and operations to ensure financial viability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement
• Support issue resolution and productive problem-solving when concerns arise around product design and business processes
• Lead efforts to continuously innovate solution design and delivery

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 or similar experience 
• 12+ years of experience leading software engineering teams
• 8+ years of experience working with an Agile development methodology
• 5+ years of experience working in cloud-enabled solutions, specifically Azure or AWS
• 5+ years of experience in programming languages essential for AI and machine learning, including Python, Java, and Node.js
• 5+ years of experience designing and developing voice bots using AWS Lex or similar platforms (e.g., Google Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework)
• Solid understanding of NLP concepts and experience with voice recognition and synthesis technologies
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science
• 7+ years of data science experience
• Solid analytical and problem-solving skills, with a focus on delivering effective and efficient solution
• Familiarity with emerging voice models like Nova Sonic and other speech recognition technologies
• Proven outstanding communication skills both written and verbal
• Familiarity with industry trends in AI/ML and voice technology, including best practices and emerging tools

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

The salary range for this role is $124,500 to $239,400 annually based on full-time employment. 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.

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.