Principal Data Scientist - Optum COVE

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 COVE is a fast‑advancing enterprise capability designed to predict, identify, and resolve the moments that matter most in the consumer experience. By blending AI‑powered sensing tools, real‑time monitoring, and enterprise‑wide performance insights, the team surfaces abrasion signals early and drives rapid action to remove friction for our consumers. Working closely with partners across Operations, Tech, Product, and the Consumer Office, COVE coordinates an integrated response that ensures issues are addressed swiftly and consistently. Joining COVE means shaping a future where proactive, data‑driven experience management becomes a competitive advantage for Optum.

The role will be responsible for strategic interpretation of data and business requirements to provide executive leadership and the growth with customer centric data driven insights and data solutions. Working in collaboration with Director, key stakeholders and other data scientists team members, this role works to identify new business requirements across the organization, translate business requirements into data models, perform data engineering to combine diverse data sets, and develop custom algorithms for predictive models to support the Growth business.

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:

• Work with key business stakeholders to develop business solutions based on data driven insights to solve complex business problems
• Lead projects that combine diverse customer data sets to identify trends and opportunities, develop custom machine learning models, and provide recommendations to optimize the business and address data-related problems
• Coordinate with different functional teams to improve customer data architecture, ensure accuracy of model output and implement new data gathering processes
• Create customized summaries, business presentations and documentation for internal business clients based on the results of research
• Motivates and inspires other team members

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:

• 10+ years of programming experience in Python or R, SQL or other data manipulation tools to query data and draw insights from large data sets
• 10+ years of experience in statistical or machine learning techniques including regression, natural language processing algorithms, classification and clustering, time-series forecasting and predictive/prescriptive modeling
• 5+ years of experience providing data driven solutions, predictive models, reports, or recommendations within a business environment. This can include previous work in data science teams, business intelligence, financial reporting or analytics environments
• Model Implementation and Deployment - Python and Gen AI experience
• Experience with Generative AI and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, etc.)
• Experience with real/near real time analytics
• Experience with anomaly detection
• End to End Development - data preprocessing, feature engineering, training, deployment, maintenance, and monitoring
• Data preprocessing including combining datasets across multiple domains like calls to claims
• Performance and cost optimization of models
• Research and Innovation - someone who is not only technically skilled but can use business context to drive innovation
• Collaboration - can work with other technical folks and is able to explain outcomes/challenges to people from the business

Preferred Qualifications:

• Healthcare data experience
• Experience in Data modeling and Data Engineering
• Proven ability to work on multiple projects across functional teams
• Python mastery

*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 $112,700 to $193,200 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.