Associate Director, Strategic Finance - Optum Financial - Eden Prairie, MN

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.

Optum Financial is one of the most dynamic and strategically important businesses within UnitedHealth Group and Optum. As a growth pillar, Optum Financial plays an increasingly important role in helping consumers save, pay for, and manage health care expenses. This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of health care and financial services, where affordability, access, consumer experience, innovation, and financial discipline come together.

Optum Financial is looking to create and scale several new solutions and partnerships to drive rapid income from operations growth that complements the current business. The Associate Director, Strategic Finance will be critical to accelerating this growth by providing dedicated finance support across lines of business. The role will enable more rigorous evaluation of new products, partnerships, and investment opportunities while establishing consistent, scalable financial frameworks for shared economic models.

By bridging business development, product, and finance, this position will strengthen decision-making, improve capital allocation, and drive alignment across a highly matrixed organization. The Associate Director will develop financial models, evaluate strategic opportunities, shape deal economics, and translate ambiguous business inputs into clear, executive-ready recommendations. This is a high-impact individual contributor role with meaningful exposure to senior leaders and cross-functional teams across Optum Financial.

In addition to supporting growth investments and partnership opportunities, this role will serve as a strategic finance resource for several of Optum Financial's highest-priority initiatives. The Associate Director will lead and support cross-functional finance projects, conduct complex ad hoc analyses, develop executive-ready recommendations, and help drive enterprise initiatives that require strong financial leadership, structured problem-solving, and coordination across multiple stakeholders. The role offers a unique opportunity to influence business outcomes through both strategic growth initiatives and broader organizational priorities.

**This role will be onsite in our Eden Prairie, MN location**

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop and lead complex financial models, business cases, and scenario analyses for new products, strategic partnerships, investments, and growth opportunities
• Evaluate opportunity economics, including revenue potential, cost structure, pricing, risk, capital requirements, returns, and key sensitivities
• Partner with business development, product, technology, strategy, operations, and finance leaders to assess opportunities and structure financially sound recommendations
• Create consistent and scalable financial frameworks for shared economic models, partnership structures, pricing strategies, and investment decisions across lines of business
• Support due diligence and financial evaluation of partnerships, commercial arrangements, and selected M&A opportunities, including assessment of strategic and financial trade-offs
• Lead strategic finance support for high-priority cross-functional initiatives across Optum Financial, partnering with leaders across product, technology, operations, strategy, and finance
• Conduct complex ad hoc analyses to evaluate business performance, identify opportunities, assess risks, and support executive decision-making
• Support enterprise planning, investment prioritization, and resource allocation activities by providing fact-based financial insights and recommendations
• Drive special projects that improve operating performance, financial discipline, scalability, and long-term value creation across Optum Financial
• Translate complex and ambiguous inputs into clear assumptions, decision criteria, financial narratives, and actionable recommendations for senior leaders
• Prepare and present executive-ready materials that communicate opportunity size, economics, risks, sensitivities, and recommended actions
• Track performance of approved investments and partnerships against business case assumptions, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and recommend corrective actions
• Improve capital allocation discipline by establishing common evaluation standards, documentation, governance, and post-investment measurement
• Identify opportunities to enhance analytical frameworks, reporting capabilities, and decision-support tools that improve the speed and quality of business decisions
• Lead cross-functional workstreams, build alignment across a matrixed organization, and help move strategic opportunities and enterprise priorities from concept through evaluation and decision

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:

• 6+ years of progressive experience in strategic finance, corporate development, business development, consulting, investment banking or FP&A
• Demonstrated experience building and leading complex financial models and investment analyses
• Experience evaluating partnership structures, deal economics, or M&A opportunities
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence senior stakeholders in a matrixed environment
• Solid ability to synthesize ambiguous inputs into clear financial frameworks and strategic recommendations
• Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting to senior or executive audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field
• Experience in financial services, banking, healthcare, or another regulated industry
• Experience with shared economic models, pricing strategies, or capital allocation frameworks
• Experience supporting product and technology organizations in an agile environment
• Experience with enterprise planning tools such as Hyperion, Essbase, or similar platforms
• Demonstrated ability to drive business development initiatives and strategic partnerships
• Solid analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities with high attention to detail

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 $112,700 - $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.