Manager AI/ML Engineering (Java and Azure)

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.    

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable enterprise applications using Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, SQL Server, and Azure, while ensuring adherence to architectural standards and engineering best practices
• Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, and cross-functional teams to define technology roadmaps, drive application modernization initiatives, and deliver solutions that address business needs
• Identify, evaluate, and implement AI and Generative AI-based solutions to enhance business processes, improve user experience, increase productivity, and drive innovation across enterprise applications
• Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and engineering best practices to ensure scalable and maintainable solutions
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product teams, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Drive innovation by identifying, evaluating, and implementing AI and Generative AI-based solutions to enhance business processes, improve customer and employee experiences, and increase operational efficiency
• Mentor and guide engineering teams in modern development practices, cloud adoption, automation, and AI-driven solution development while fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation
• Design and develop AI-powered features leveraging NLP, Large Language Models (LLMs), and classical machine learning
• Own the end-to-end ML lifecycle, including data preparation, model development, experimentation, evaluation, API integration, deployment, and monitoring in cloud environments.
• Implement and enforce Responsible AI practices, including content safety, PHI/PII protection, prompt engineering standards, and evaluation frameworks in collaboration with governance teams.
• Build and maintain scalable web services and RESTful APIs to operationalize ML capabilities, along with comprehensive technical documentation and runbooks.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, architecture, security, data, and platform teams to ensure alignment with enterprise standards and delivery of measurable business outcomes
• 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:

• Hands-on experience with Java 8/11/17/21, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Hibernate/JPA, RESTful APIs, and modern application development frameworks
• Experience with build, dependency management, and application lifecycle tools such as Maven and Gradle
• Experience with cloud technologies, preferably Microsoft Azure, including application modernization, cloud migration, performance optimization, and operational excellence
• Solid knowledge of CI/CD practices and deployment automation using tools such as Jenkins and GitHub Actions
• Proficient in designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performing enterprise applications leveraging SQL Server and other database technologies
• Proven solid expertise in Java-based application development with a solid foundation in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles, design patterns, and enterprise architecture best practices

Preferred Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience
• Hands-on experience with Spring ecosystem (Spring Boot, Spring MVC), ORM frameworks (Hibernate), RESTful services, and database technologies
• Experience with build and dependency management tools such as Maven and Gradle
• Experience with CI/CD pipeline setup and deployments using Jenkins or Git Hub actions
• Proficiency in Java (versions 8, 11, 17, and 21)
• Proven solid foundation in object-oriented programming (OOP) principles and design patterns

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.