Associate Director - General Management

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.  

Positions in this function include those responsible for management and administration of multiple functions, or management of general business operations. May manage the P&L of a business or part of a business unit. Manage daily operations of multiple levels of staff and multiple functions/departments across one or more business units. May include day to day site operations, management leadership internal and external to organization, accountable for financial and non-financial results (budgets and actuals). Project management and implementation, staff management.

Transforming health care for everyone takes a huge effort. But we never said major impact was easy. At UnitedHealthcare, We are working to create a system that is connected, aligned and more affordable for all involved. One that delivers high quality care, responsive to the needs of each person and the communities in which they live. And as part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, we have the support and resources of a Fortune 6 industry leader to do so. As a Director of Strategic Initiatives, you'll lead mission critical initiatives that drive the development of national policy for a significant population. You'll develop competitive products that deliver more value and improved outcomes and will help transform the health care industry.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Outcome Ownership (Revenue & Performance Metrics)
  • Own and drive improvement in key RCM outcome metrics, including:
  • Translate operational performance into measurable financial outcomes
  • Build strong visibility and governance around metric performance, trends, and drivers
• Back-Office Operations Leadership: Lead large-scale back-office RCM functions (AR follow-ups, denials, payment posting, coding support, adjustments)
  • Ensure high performance on:
    • Drive operational rigor and standardization to support consistent delivery of outcomes
• Closed-Loop Feedback with Front & Mid Office
  • Actively collaborate with front-end and mid-cycle teams to address upstream issues impacting back-end outcomes
  • Establish and drive a closed-loop feedback mechanism to:
    • Influence cross-functional stakeholders to improve first-time-right rates and reduce rework
• RCM Domain Expertise & Insight-Led Problem Solving
  • Leverage deep understanding of the end-to-end RCM lifecycle to diagnose systemic issues
  • Use data and analytics to identify revenue leakage, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies
  • Provide actionable insights to clients and internal teams to improve overall RCM performance
• Cost Optimization & Efficiency Focus
  • Drive initiatives to reduce cost-to-collect while improving revenue outcomes
  • Identify and act on key levers:
  • Build a culture focused on efficiency, cost consciousness, and value delivery
• Transformation, Automation & AI Enablement
  • Identify and implement automation and AI-driven solutions across RCM workflows
  • Drive use cases such as:
  • Partner with technology teams to align RCM domain needs with digital solutions
• Client & Stakeholder Management
  • Engage with clients and onshore stakeholders as a value-driven partner, not just a delivery owner
  • Lead governance discussions with focus on:
    • Outcome metrics
  • Insights and root causes
  • Continuous improvement opportunities
  • Build strong credibility through data-backed recommendations and execution
• Process Excellence & Innovation
  • Lead continuous improvement initiatives (Lean / Six Sigma) focused on both efficiency and revenue impact
  • Standardize and scale best practices across accounts
  • Encourage innovative and out-of-the-box thinking to solve complex RCM challenges
• People Leadership
  • Lead and develop large teams (300-500+ FTEs), including managers and supervisors
  • Build a high-performance culture focused on:
• Transition & Change Management
  • Lead/support transitions of RCM processes into offshore/global delivery
  • Ensure effective stabilization with strong focus on outcome continuity and improvement
  • Drive adoption of new processes, tools, and transformation initiatives
• Governance & Compliance
  • Ensure adherence to client SLAs, compliance standards (HIPAA), and internal controls
  • Proactively identify and mitigate risks impacting operations and revenue outcomes
  • Establish strong governance frameworks for performance tracking and reporting
• Provides leadership to and is accountable for the performance of managers and/or senior level professional staff
• Impact of work is most often at the operational or local business unit or market level
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Graduate (MBA preferred)
• 12+ years in US Healthcare RCM / BPO operations
• Experience managing large-scale back-office operations (300-500+ FTEs)
• Solid exposure to end-to-end RCM lifecycle and performance metrics

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.