Sr AI/ML Engineer, Cloud & AI Solutions - Remote or Hybrid in MN or 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 Sr AI/ML Engineer within the Growth Office - Modernization & AI Acceleration, you will design, develop, and deploy machine learning and Generative AI solutions on a scalable, cloud-based environment that accelerates AI adoption across the organization.
You will partner closely with engineering, data science, product, and business stakeholders to translate strategic initiatives into secure, high-performance AI solutions. This role combines hands-on AI/ML engineering, model development, and AI solution enablement to deliver meaningful business outcomes.

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: 

• Design, develop, and deploy AI/ML and Generative AI solutions in a cloud-based environment with a focus on scalability, reliability, performance, and security
• Build, fine-tune, evaluate, and operationalize machine learning and LLM-based models for production use cases
• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into robust AI-driven technical solutions
• Contribute to AI architecture and technical design, including model selection, data pipelines, MLOps tooling, and integration patterns
• Develop and maintain reusable AI components, prompt patterns, RAG pipelines, and agentic workflows
• Apply responsible AI practices including bias, fairness, privacy, and model evaluation throughout the lifecycle
• Partner with cross-functional teams including data scientists, software engineers, product managers, and UI/UX designers
• Establish and maintain coding standards, ML best practices, and quality assurance processes
• Conduct code and model reviews, provide constructive feedback, and share knowledge with peers
• Monitor and optimize AI solution performance, cost, latency, and resource utilization in production
• Collaborate with DevOps, MLOps, and infrastructure teams to ensure secure, scalable deployment and operations
• Stay current with advancements in AI/ML frameworks, Generative AI, and cloud technologies

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: 

• 4+ years of experience as a software, AI/ML, or data engineer delivering cloud-based solutions
• 3+ years of experience building and deploying machine learning, deep learning, or Generative AI solutions
• 3+ years of programming experience in Python (additional experience in Golang, JavaScript, or Java)
• 2+ years of experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud
• 1+ years of experience with security and compliance in cloud environments
• Experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, or Hugging Face Transformers
• Experience building distributed systems and cloud-native applications

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Hands-on experience with Generative AI, LLM-based solutions, RAG architectures, and agentic frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex)
• Experience with MLOps tooling such as MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker, Azure ML, or Vertex AI
• Experience with vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, pgvector) and embedding models
• Demonstrated familiarity with model evaluation, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and responsible AI practices
• Demonstrated familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud monitoring tools
• Proven solid problem-solving and analytical skills with the ability to propose innovative AI solutions
• Proven excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical team
• Demonstrated passion for continuous learning in AI/ML and cloud technologies

*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 $120,100 to $214,500 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.