Senior AI/ML Scientist – 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 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 UnitedHealth Group’s enterprise AI team. We are AI/ML scientists and engineers with deep expertise in AI/ML engineering for health care. We develop AI/ML solutions for the highest impact opportunities across UnitedHealth Group businesses including UnitedHealthcare, Optum Financial, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. In addition to transforming the health care journey through responsible AI/ML innovation, our charter also includes developing and supporting an enterprise AI/ML development platform.

 

Optum AI 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 research and 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. We also collaborate with AI/ML researchers at some of the world’s top universities

 

As a Senior AI/ML Engineer, you will be responsible for the design, implementation, and scaling of AI systems for health applications at Optum.  These systems will solve problems focused on improving patient engagement, predicting progression of disease, supporting novel designs of clinical trials using both structured and unstructured (text) data, and optimizing claims processing.  You will apply state-of-the-art approaches for MLOps to ensure the performance and reliability of machine learning models serving our customers and build data pipelines that deliver real-time insights.  

 

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

 

Primary Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to determine applicability of AI to business problems 
• Process and transform source data to be used in machine learning pipelines, leveraging distributed computing environments and parallel processing approaches
• Build robust training and evaluation pipelines using Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow, and modern ML tooling 
• Follow best practices for software development (tests, packaging, GitHub, code review) 
• Communicate clearly with cross functional teams and stakeholders through written documents, technical talks, and presentations 
• Stay up-to-date with latest AI/ML technologies and research 
• Publish findings in top tier AI and ML venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CHIL, etc.) and present internally to Optum AI and business leaders 
• Closely collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) team to ensure that the delivered solutions are compliant with the company policies and standards. 

• Develop evaluation protocols, diagnostics, and documentation to support model governance and regulatory requirements 

   

 

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:

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field 
• PhD with experience in AI/ML solutions delivery role or Masters with 5+ years in AI/ML solutions delivery role 
• Experience using in cloud platforms and services (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.) 
• Proficiency in AI/ML engineering development with Python 
• Demonstrated experience leading and implementing AI/ML projects from ideation to evaluation, delivery, and monitoring 
• Experience with AI Cloud services like Azure ML, Databricks, Azure OpenAI, or similar services in GCP / AWS 
• Expertise in Large Language Modeling and Transformer Architectures with experience in prompt engineering, evaluation, and LLM optimization 

• Proven exceptional verbal and written communication skills to lead/mentor project teams, as well as to communicate technical content and analytical insights/complex findings in a clear and concise manner to multiple audiences, including senior management 

   

 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Working knowledge of software development tools and practices including DevOps and CI/CD tools (Git, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.) 
• Experience working with healthcare data (claims, EHR, clinician notes, etc.) and implementing AI solutions in a healthcare setting 
• Experience implementing agent architectures that can plan, call tools/APIs, interact with retrieval systems, and handle multistep clinical workflows 
• Proven solid publication record in toptier AI/ML/NLP venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CHIL, etc.)

 

*All employees working remotely 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 $89,900 to $160,600 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.