Senior 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 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.

#AIForBetterHealthcare

AI/ML Engineers code and develop software that deploys ML models and algorithms into production. 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).Applies deep learning technologies to give computers the capability to visualize, learn and respond to complex situations. May adapt machine learning to areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and other products that allow users to have an interactive experience. Work with large scale computing frameworks, data analysis systems. Employees in this role are expected to apply knowledge of experimental methodologies, statistics, optimization, probability theory and machine learning using code for tool building, statistical analysis, using both general purpose software and statistical languages. Generally work is self-directed and not prescribed.

Job Responsibilities:

• Drive responsible use of AI/ML adoption across the team, driving innovative use of both Generative AI and traditional ML techniques. 
• Design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and continuously improve AI-powered software solutions to meet customer and business needs. 
• Build responsible AI solutions and service components to support the Provider community, ensuring compliance with ethical and regulatory standards. 
• Develop new features leveraging AI/ML, including Generative AI models, predictive analytics, and automation capabilities. 
• Provide technical leadership for AI initiatives, including Chatbots and conversational AI solutions. 
• Partner with product management, architects, and engineering leadership to deliver creative, scalable AI solutions for healthcare challenges. 
• Drive alignment with enterprise AI strategies and ensure solutions meet business objectives and engineering best practices. 
• Accountable for high-quality software deliverables and operational excellence. 
• Mentor and train team members on AI/ML technologies, frameworks, and responsible AI practices. 
• Collaborate with broader engineering teams to integrate AI into cloud modernization efforts and digital-first initiatives. 
• Exercise independent judgment to prioritize, plan, and manage AI-related activities and projects. 

• 7+ years of software engineering experience. 
• 4+ years of hands-on experience building AI/ML solutions, including LLMs, Generative AI, and traditional ML models, Design, build, and deploy LLM‑powered solutions, including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, decisioning agents, and orchestration layers.
• Design and build end‑to‑end AI services including backend APIs, orchestration services, and UI integrations for claims users and operations teams.
• Develop scalable backend services using Java (Spring Boot) and modern API frameworks.
• Build and integrate web applications using modern frontend frameworks (React or equivalent) where needed for AI‑driven user experiences.
• Architect cloud‑native solutions on AWS, leveraging services such as Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, DynamoDB/RDS, OpenSearch, and event‑driven patterns.
• Strong experience with Chatbots, conversational AI, and NLP-based solutions. 
• Strong knowledge of security, access controls, logging, monitoring, performance tuning, disaster recovery, and production operations. 
• Develop AI components leveraging AWS Bedrock, foundation models, embeddings, vector stores, and prompt engineering best practices, Strong experience, with deep backend expertise in Python, Java and REST/GraphQL APIs.
• Implement agent‑based architectures (AgentCore / agentic cloud patterns) to support complex claims workflows such as adjudication assistance, exception handling, and HITL (human‑in‑the‑loop) scenarios.
• Continuously evaluate model performance, hallucination risks, explainability, and operational metrics in production.

Preferred skills:

• Experience developing and deploying applications on AWS.
• Strong understanding of security, IAM, data protection, logging, monitoring, performance tuning, disaster recovery, and production operations.
• Prior experience modernizing legacy systems using AI‑enabled microservices.

Qualifications:

• B.Tech in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent experience). 
• Experience in the healthcare industry. 
• Full-stack engineering experience. 

Healthcare domain exposure (preferred):

·Experience with healthcare datasets (claims, eligibility, prior authorization, provider directories)

·Understanding of clinical or operational workflows (provider calls, documentation, adjudication steps)

·Awareness of healthcare data sensitivity and HIPAA‑like compliance expectations.

Careers with Optum. Here's the idea. We built an entire organization around one giant objective; make the health system work better for everyone. So when it comes to how we use the world's large accumulation of health-related information, or guide health and lifestyle choices or manage pharmacy benefits for millions, our first goal is to leap beyond the status quo and uncover new ways to serve. Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, brings together some of the greatest minds and most advanced ideas on where health care has to go in order to reach its fullest potential. For you, that means working on high performance teams against sophisticated challenges that matter. Optum, incredible ideas in one incredible company and a singular opportunity to do your life's best work.^SM