Lead AI/ML Engineer Remote Nationwide or Hybrid in MN/DC

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.

As a Lead AI/ML Engineer on our Behavioral Health Technology team, you will design, develop, and implement enterprise-scale machine learning systems and artificial intelligence solutions. Our team's mission is to advance clinical and administrative excellence in behavioral health by leveraging advanced technologies like deep learning, natural language processing, and generative AI. In this role, you will have the unique opportunity to work on highly impactful datasets, architect production-ready ML pipelines, and collaborate with cross-functional partners to build cutting-edge solutions that directly improve health outcomes. You will leverage modern AI/ML frameworks, cloud environments (such as Azure, AWS, or GCP), and automated MLOps workflows to deliver scalable, secure, and responsible AI applications.

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:

• Own Discovery, technical scoping, system Design, build, and deploy production-grade machine learning models and scalable AI solutions to address complex business challenges, emphasizing responsible and ethical use of AI
• Design and implement end-to-end MLOps pipelines, including data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, deployment, and automated monitoring
• Evaluate emerging AI/ML trends, frameworks, and methodologies to inform solution design, drive strategic innovation, and continuously optimize existing models
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, software engineers, and product managers, to translate complex business requirements into robust, reusable AI capabilities
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to junior and mid-level engineers, championing engineering best practices and architectural standards
• Troubleshoot, optimize, and maintain deployed models and pipelines to ensure high availability, scalability, and performance in production environments
• Use enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and drive continuous improvement within the engineering lifecycle

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:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative field (or equivalent global degree)
• 10+ years of experience in Software Development industry
• 2+ years of AI/ML engineering experience, with a proven track record of designing, building, and deploying ML models in a production environment
• 2+ years of experience with Python and core ML libraries
• 2+ years of experience building and automating end-to-end MLOps pipelines (e.g., using MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, or cloud-native tooling)
• Experience with cloud platform environments (e.g., Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
• Solid knowledge of software engineering best practices, including version control (Git), CI/CD pipelines, and unit testing

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) frameworks
• Experience with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Ray) and high-performance computing
• Experience working in the healthcare sector, specifically in clinical or behavioral health technology domains
• Solid understanding of data engineering principles, relational and non-relational databases (SQL, NoSQL, Vector databases)
• Proven excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical AI/ML concepts to non-technical stakeholders

*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 $145,500 - $249,500 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. 

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