Associate AI/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 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.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Assist in designing, developing, and supporting GenAI/LLM-enabled features under guidance, from prototype through production
• Implement and iterate on prompt engineering patterns (prompting, prompt chaining, structured outputs) and contribute to basic evaluation approaches (quality, safety, hallucination risk, latency)
• Support agent-building efforts (tool use, multi-step workflows, orchestration) and help define goals, constraints, and guardrails for safe behavior
• Build and maintain backend services using Java + Spring Boot and REST APIs to expose AI capabilities to applications; integrate with Database and event streaming via Kafka where needed.
• Contribute to UI/API integration work (as needed) using React to deliver end-to-end features
• Write clean, maintainable code in Java and/or Python, applying engineering best practices and participating in code reviews
• Create and maintain automated tests (e.g., JUnit) and contribute to CI quality gates (linting, unit/integration tests)
• Package and deploy services using Docker and support runtime deployments on Kubernetes; contribute to CI/CD pipelines
• Monitor and troubleshoot services using logging/observability tools (e.g., Splunk), assist with incident triage, and document fixes/runbooks
• Follow Responsible AI and secure engineering practices, including safe handling of sensitive data and adherence to internal SDLC/AIDLC standards
• Use approved productivity tools such as GitHub Copilot and Gemini to improve development speed and quality while complying with security and data-handling guidelines

Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions to address complex business challenges with emphasis on responsible use of AI

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: 

• Bachelor's degree
• 1+ years of experience in software engineering or ML engineering building software components production
• 1+ years of experience in Java or Python, including ability to write readable, testable, maintainable code
• 1+ years of experience building or integrating REST APIs; familiarity with Spring Boot or similar backend framework
• 1+ years of experience using Git and collaborative development practices (branches, pull requests, code reviews)
• 1+ years of experience with Basic test automation experience (e.g., JUnit or Python testing frameworks)
• 6+ months of experience of MongoDB (or other NoSQL) and general data modeling/querying concepts

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Familiarity with event-driven architecture concepts and/or messaging systems such as Kafka (hands-on preferred)
• Foundational knowledge of AI/ML concepts, with exposure to NLP and/or LLM-based applications (e.g., summarization, extraction, Q&A)
• Exposure to GenAI patterns such as prompt engineering, RAG, and/or agent workflows; ability to evaluate outputs for correctness, safety, and consistency
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and basic understanding of deployment environments (cloud and/or Kubernetes), CI/CD fundamentals
• Strong communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills; comfortable working in an Agile delivery model

*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 rangefrom $60,200 to $107,400 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. 

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.

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