Senior AI/ML Engineer

Requisition Number: 2400865
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, and data they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
Position Summary:
As a Senior AI/ML Engineer, you will provide technical leadership for the design, architecture, implementation, and operational excellence of Optum's next-generation, AI-powered engagement platforms. In this role, you will partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Architecture, Security, and business leaders to drive product roadmaps and deliver innovative AI and agentic systems that directly improve member and provider experiences at enterprise scale. You will work on high-impact initiatives leveraging modern Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and multi-agent workflows to build reliable, secure, and performant healthcare solutions.
You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.
Primary Responsibilities

• Technical Vision & Architecture: Define and execute the technical vision, architectural strategy, and engineering roadmap for AI-enabled products, serving as a lead technical authority on AI solution design, platform standards, and reusable frameworks
• AI Solution Engineering: Architect and build scalable AI and agentic systems utilizing Large Language Models (LLMs), multi-agent orchestration frameworks (such as LangGraph), vector databases, embeddings, and enterprise Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns
• Platform Development & MLOps: Lead the design and deployment of secure, cloud-native AI platforms on Azure; establish best-in-class MLOps and LLMOps practices including automated evaluation, CI/CD pipelines, model lifecycle management, and cost/performance optimization
• Responsible AI & Governance: Embed responsible AI practices, model governance, explainability, and safety controls into all solutions to mitigate risks associated with hallucinations, bias, data leakage, and security vulnerabilities
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Mentor AI engineers, software developers, and cross-functional delivery teams; lead technical design sessions and architecture reviews while fostering continuous innovation and engineering excellence
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Management, business leaders, and enterprise technology groups to translate strategic clinical and business objectives into scalable, high-value technical capabilities
• Operational Excellence: Maintain accountability for platform reliability, availability, performance, and monitoring; establish service-level objectives (SLOs) and lead root-cause analysis to ensure continuous operational health

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

• 5+ years of software engineering experience designing and building enterprise-scale applications and platforms
• 3+ years of experience leading technical design, solution architecture, and engineering direction across multiple teams
• 2+ years of hands-on experience designing, developing, and deploying AI/ML solutions in production environments
• 2+ years of experience in Python and modern AI/ML development libraries and tooling

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline
• Experience leading AI platform development within highly regulated healthcare, insurance, or financial services industries
• In-depth experience with Azure OpenAI service, enterprise AI security protocols, and Responsible AI implementation frameworks
• Background in establishing enterprise-wide AI architecture standards, prompt engineering guidelines, and model evaluation benchmarks
• Experience architecting and deploying cloud-native AI/ML services within Microsoft Azure (or comparable cloud environments) utilizing CI/CD and MLOps/LLMOps automation
• Experience communicating technical strategies and collaborating with cross-functional partners and senior leadership
• Experience developing scalable recommendation engines, enterprise search platforms, or conversational engagement systems
• Experience leading distributed engineering teams and mentoring senior-level engineers
• Familiarity with modern big data platforms, streaming analytics, and enterprise knowledge graphs

*All Telecommuters 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.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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.
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