Vice President - AI Operations Transformation

Requisition Number: 2375356
If you want to achieve more in your mission of health care, you have to be really smart about the business of health care. Challenge yourself, your peers and our industry by shaping what health care looks like and doing your life's best work.(sm)
Lead the end-to-end AI-led operations transformation strategy, with accountability for defining the multi-year roadmap and delivering measurable business outcomes (cost, productivity, quality, experience, and cash acceleration). Own the identification, prioritization, and scaling of AI-driven opportunities across operations, working in close partnership with Operations, Technology and Product organizations to ensure fit-for-purpose enablement-without assuming build ownership. Drive the operating model, governance, and behavioral changes required to embed AI into core workflows at enterprise scale.
Role Boundary / Guardrail
This role is a business and operations leadership position. While it defines AI transformation strategy and co-creates solutions with Technology and Product teams, it does not own engineering delivery or platform development.
1. AI-Led Operations Transformation Strategy & Value Agenda • Define a multi-year AI Operations transformation roadmap, aligned to enterprise priorities and business value goals.• Identify and size transformation opportunities across core operational domains and enabling functions, eg RCM, PI, RQ, EEB, LS, Quality, WFM• Build and continuously refine a prioritized portfolio of AI initiatives, balancing impact, feasibility, and time-to-value.• Establish clear linkage between AI investments and business outcomes, with ownership of value realization.
2. Value Realization & Business Accountability • Own delivery of committed financial and operational outcomes including cost reduction, capacity creation, revenue uplift, quality improvement, and experience gains in partnership with ops COOs.• Embed AI initiatives into business performance management systems, KPI structures, and operating reviews.• Drive accountability within operations leadership for sustained value capture, not just deployment.
3. Cross-Functional Orchestration • Act as the single-threaded operations owner for AI transformation initiatives.• Partner with Technology and Product teams and support solutions development aligned to business priorities and operational realities.• Define business requirements, success metrics, and adoption expectations while enabling Tech and Product teams to deliver scalable solutions.• Drive enterprise-level prioritization and trade-off decisions across competing initiatives.
4. Operating Model Transformation & Workflow Redesign • Redesign end-to-end processes, workflows, and decision layers to embed AI into how work is performed.• Ensure AI is integrated into day-to-day operations rather than deployed as standalone tools.
5. Scaling & Industrialization • Drive enterprise-scale replication and adoption of proven AI use cases across business units and geographies.• Establish repeatable playbooks for scaling and adoption, including rollout strategy, training, and performance tracking.
6. Governance, Funding & Decision Rights • Establish and lead AI governance for Operations, including portfolio prioritization, funding allocation, and performance tracking.• Define clear decision rights across Operations, Technology, and Product.• Lead executive-level reviews on transformation progress, risks, and value delivery.
7. Adoption, Change & Capability Building • Drive enterprise adoption of AI within operations, ensuring sustained usage and impact.• Lead change management, capability building, and leadership alignment.• Define and track adoption KPIs (usage, productivity gains, quality improvements).• Ensure strong business ownership and accountability for outcomes.• Communicate transformation progress to executive leadership and stakeholders.
8. Ecosystem & Acceleration • Evaluate and leverage external partners, vendors, and AI capabilities to accelerate outcomes.• Drive build vs. buy vs. partner decisions in alignment with Technology and Product.
Success Metrics • Total value delivered vs. plan ($ impact across cost, revenue, and productivity).• % of transformation value realized, not just committed.• Adoption at scale, measured by workflow-level embedding and sustained usage.• Operational performance improvement including cycle time, throughput, and accuracy.• Speed to scale, including pilot-to-enterprise rollout time.• AI contribution to core business KPIs such as RCM yield, CX, and quality.
Candidate Profile
Experience • 15+ years in operations leadership, transformation, or P&L roles.• Proven experience defining and delivering enterprise-scale transformation strategies, including AI-enabled initiatives.• Track record of owning value realization at scale, beyond strategy or pilots.• Experience working in Ops-Tech-Product partnership models with clear business ownership.
Capabilities • Ability to define transformation strategies grounded in business value and operational realities.• Ability to translate business problems into AI-enabled opportunities without requiring deep technical ownership.• Deep understanding of operational levers including cost, productivity, throughput, quality, and experience.• Experience partnering with Technology and Product teams to co-create scalable solutions.• Strong enterprise stakeholder influence at the CxO level.• Data-driven, outcome-oriented mindset with strong trade-off judgment.
Key Stakeholders• Global Capability Owner for RCM, RQ, PI, EEB etc (EVP/SVP/VP)• Functional leaders in Optum ops for LS, WFM, Quality, Marketing ops etc (EVP/SVP/VP)• Multiple Business Owners across line of businesses within Optum ops (EVP/SVP/VP)• Multiple Tech CIOs in Optum Insight (EVP/SVP/VP)• Multiple Tech AI leaders (EVP/SVP/VP)• Multiple Product Teams across line of businesses (EVP/SVP/VP)• Multiple Operating teams across line of businesses• Multiple Technology teams across line of businesses• Multiple Automation and Analytics teams• Multiple Innovation leaders
Graduate/Post Graduate Degree
Leadership Traits
*Enterprise-wide thinker with strong value orientation and accountability mindset.
*Ability to define strategy and drive execution at scale simultaneously.
*Strong decision-making capability with trade-off clarity under constraints.
*Proven ability to align diverse stakeholders across Operations, Technology, and Product.
*Builder of high-performance, transformation-oriented teams.
Careers with Optum. Here's the idea. We built an entire organization around one giant objective; make the health system work better for everyone. So when it comes to how we use the world's large accumulation of health-related information, or guide health and lifestyle choices or manage pharmacy benefits for millions, our first goal is to leap beyond the status quo and uncover new ways to serve. Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, brings together some of the greatest minds and most advanced ideas on where health care has to go in order to reach its fullest potential. For you, that means working on high performance teams against sophisticated challenges that matter. Optum, incredible ideas in one incredible company and a singular opportunity to do your life's best work. SM
Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.
UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.