Lead AI or ML Engineer

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.  

We are seeking an experienced AI Architect to lead the design, development, and implementation of cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions across the organization. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in shaping our AI strategy, defining architecture standards, and ensuring the creation of scalable, secure, and high-performance AI-driven products and services.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Architecture & Standards:
  • Design end-to-end AI/ML architectures aligned to business and technical goals
  • Develop, maintain, and enforce AI/ML architecture guidelines, standards, and comprehensive review checklists
  • Keep documentation current and ensure all AI projects align with established architecture best practices and compliance requirements
• Governance & Review:
  • Proactively review and assess AI solution architectures across projects
  • Provide actionable feedback, coaching, and guidance to teams implementing AI/ML solutions
  • Approve solution designs and ensure adherence to architecture standards before implementation
• Innovation & Prototyping:
  • Stay abreast of emerging advancements in AI and machine learning, evaluating their potential through hands-on development
  • Build rapid prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and accelerators to assess and demonstrate new technologies or approaches
  • Publish point-of-view papers, technical blogs, and thought leadership content to guide internal and external stakeholders
• Collaboration:
  • Work closely with product managers, data scientists, engineers, and other business stakeholders to drive the development and deployment of AI solutions
• Leadership & Mentorship:
  • Foster a culture of excellence and continuous learning within the AI/ML engineering community
  • Mentor and upskill team members in architecture best practices, new technologies, and design patterns
• Compliance & Security:
  • Ensure all AI systems follow data governance, privacy standards, and ethical AI principles
  • Collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) team to ensure that the solutions are compliant with company policies and standards 
• 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:

• MS in computer science or related quantitative field and 5+ years of industry/academic experience in AI/ML or a related field OR a PhD and 2+ years of experience 
• 10+ years of Arch experience & at least 5+ years of AI/ML experience 
• Technical Skills:
  • 5+ years of experience with Python, classical ML methods and deep learning, including deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or Tensorflow 
  • Experience with LLM frameworks and/or NLP approaches such as text embedding and text classification 
  • Experience with cloud AI platforms (AWS SageMaker, Azure ML, Google AI Platform) and MLOps tools
  • Solid knowledge of data engineering and data pipelines
  • Understanding of data privacy, security, and ethics in AI system design
• Proven track record architecting and deploying AI-driven applications at scale
• Soft Skills:
  • Experience in developing technical guidelines and governance frameworks
  • Solid leadership, coaching, and communication skills
  • Ability to work collaboratively and influence cross-functional teams
  • Self-driven and passionate about innovation and emerging technology

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.