Vice President, AI Engineering

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Vice President, AI Engineering, sets the strategic direction for Enterprise AI Architecture, Engineering Delivery, Solution Strategy, and Product Management. This role serves as a strategic technology leader responsible for building, accelerating, governing, and scaling the delivery of the enterprise AI portfolio.

The role encompasses defining the enterprise AI technology strategy, deploying scalable AI capabilities, and advancing AI adoption across key business functions to enable an AI-first enterprise. We are seeking an accomplished leader to build and guide a high-performing organization committed not only to delivering AI-powered solutions, but also to establishing reusable AI platforms, driving enterprise adoption, and creating measurable business value through responsible AI innovation.

This position oversees a multidisciplinary organization of AI engineers, solution architects, product leaders, and delivery professionals responsible for designing, architecting, implementing, and scaling enterprise AI capabilities across the UHG ecosystem.

The role bridges enterprise strategy, product management, stakeholder engagement, and technical execution. Working closely with business and technology leaders, this executive will translate business priorities into scalable AI capabilities that improve operational efficiency, employee experience, and organizational effectiveness. Success in this role requires deep technical expertise, executive leadership, business acumen, and a passion for building enterprise capabilities that enable long-term transformation.

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:

Enterprise AI Strategy

• Define and execute the enterprise AI strategy and multi‑year roadmap, leveraging advancements in Generative AI, LLMs, multimodal AI, Agentic AI, data platforms, and cloud technologies to drive innovation, adoption, and measurable business outcomes

• Lead the evolution of Enterprise AI across strategy, architecture, engineering, product management, platform capabilities, research, and value realization to deliver sustained enterprise impact

• Own a portfolio of enterprise AI capabilities spanning internally developed solutions and strategic platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, Google AgentSpace, and emerging AI technologies

• Establish and scale the AI operating model, governance, and delivery frameworks that enable responsible, secure, and efficient adoption of AI across the enterprise

• Partner across Enterprise AI, Digital, Data, Infrastructure, Security, and Architecture organizations to drive strategic alignment, platform interoperability, technology standards, and capability reuse

• Champion enterprise-wide AI transformation by identifying high-value opportunities, accelerating adoption, and embedding AI-powered products, copilots, intelligent workflows, and agent-based systems into business operations

• Lead world-class AI engineering capabilities, with expertise in data engineering, analytics, modern data platforms, and enterprise-scale AI delivery to ensure operational excellence and business value realization

Corporate Systems Solution Strategy & Architecture

• Reimagine and drive enterprise AI solution strategy that enables intelligent automation and transforms business operations across corporate functions

• Translate business and technology roadmaps into scalable AI-enabled solutions that accelerate enterprise transformation

• Influence business and technology partners to modernize enterprise platforms into AI-ready architectures while maximizing the value of AI capabilities embedded within enterprise software platforms

• Drive innovation by defining scalable solution architectures that emphasize reuse, interoperability, security, and long-term maintainability

• Partner with enterprise architecture, engineering, and product organizations to ensure solution designs align with enterprise standards and strategic priorities

• Develop reusable reference architectures, design patterns, and integration frameworks that accelerate delivery across multiple business domains

Technical Delivery Leadership

• Lead engineering organizations responsible for delivering enterprise AI platforms and AI-powered business capabilities across the enterprise

• Establish engineering excellence through modern AI engineering practices, including DevOps, MLOps, and LLMOps, leveraging CI/CD, scalable architecture, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, observability, model lifecycle management, and secure AI deployment

• Drive delivery excellence through standardized engineering practices, reusable components, enterprise integration patterns, and platform-based delivery models

• Balance rapid experimentation with disciplined execution to successfully transition innovative AI capabilities into enterprise-scale production solutions

• Collaborate with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, Data, Infrastructure, and Business organizations to ensure delivery priorities remain aligned with enterprise strategy

Product Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Partner with product leaders to define and evolve the Enterprise AI portfolio, ensuring investments are aligned to strategic priorities and measurable business outcomes

• Establish governance and prioritization processes for AI initiatives across the enterprise

• Develop outcome-based success measures that demonstrate business value, adoption, employee productivity improvements, and operational impact

• Promote reusable AI capabilities that can be leveraged across multiple business functions rather than point solutions

Generative and Responsible AI

• Design and deploy production-grade AI solutions leveraging Generative AI, LLM orchestration, prompt engineering, RAG, and Agentic AI architectures to drive scalable business outcomes

• Establish AI engineering excellence through robust model evaluation, testing, monitoring, observability, operational excellence, and lifecycle management across enterprise AI platforms

• Ensure responsible and secure AI adoption through governance frameworks, regulatory compliance, and close partnership with Legal, Risk, Privacy, Compliance, and Security teams to uphold fairness, transparency, explainability, and enterprise standards

Innovation & Enablement

• Maintain awareness of emerging AI technologies, foundation models, agentic AI architectures, enterprise AI platforms, and evolving deployment patterns to continuously strengthen the enterprise AI strategy

• Evaluate new technologies and industry trends to identify opportunities that improve employee experience, operational efficiency, and business outcomes

• Contribute to the development of reusable solution assets, reference architectures, and technical enablement materials

• Support experimentation and prototyping efforts to validate new solution approaches

• Contribute to the evolution of delivery models from bespoke services to scalable, platform-enabled solutions

• Set the standard for innovation throughout the entire team by actively involving members in hackathons, fostering creativity and forward-thinking, and demonstrating leadership through your actions

• Collaborate with academic and research institutions to inform solution design and talent development

Team Leadership

• Build and lead a multidisciplinary organization consisting of AI engineers, solution architects, product managers, AI platform engineers, and technical delivery leaders

• Foster a culture of excellence, client-centricity, and continuous improvement.  Drive restless curiosity and a relentless pursuit of delivering an exceptional experience to all UHG employees

• Develop leadership capability throughout the organization by investing in coaching, mentoring, succession planning, and technical skill development

• Establish performance metrics that measure both organizational effectiveness and business value delivered through Enterprise AI

• Build solid partnerships across business and technology organizations while creating a culture of shared ownership and enterprise collaboration

• Champion continuous learning and AI capability development across the organization to help establish UHG as an AI-first enterprise

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:

• Proven experience leading enterprise AI engineering, AI platform, or AI solution delivery organizations

• Outstanding communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Demonstrated success defining and executing enterprise AI strategies that scale beyond pilots into enterprise-wide capabilities

• Proven background in AI/ML technologies, Generative AI, cloud platforms, enterprise architecture, and large-scale systems integration

• Experience leading multidisciplinary organizations spanning engineering, architecture, product management, and AI delivery

• Demonstrated ability to translate business priorities into scalable technology strategies and measurable business outcomes

• Experience building enterprise AI platforms, reusable capabilities, and delivery frameworks that accelerate organizational adoption

• Proven executive communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior technology and business leaders

• Track record of leading large-scale organizational transformation and deliver complex enterprise technology initiatives

• Passion for innovation, continuous improvement, and developing high-performing technical organizations

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience within healthcare or other highly regulated industries

• Experience leading enterprise AI transformation initiatives across multiple business functions

• Experience with GCP AI Services

• Familiarity with Responsible AI governance frameworks and enterprise AI risk management

• Experience evaluating enterprise AI platforms, commercial AI products, and build-versus-buy technology strategies

• Experience building reusable architecture frameworks, AI platforms, and enterprise technology accelerators

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related technical discipline

*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 $200,400 to $343,500 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.