Director, AI/ML Engineering - Remote

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 Optum Technology Digital team is on a mission to disrupt the healthcare industry, transforming UHG into an industry-leading Consumer brand. We deliver hyper-personalized digital solutions that empower direct-to-consumer, digital-first experiences, educating, guiding, and empowering consumers to access the right care at the right time. Our mission is to revolutionize healthcare for patients and providers by delivering cutting-edge, personalized and conversational digital solutions. We're Consumer Obsessed, ensuring they receive exceptional support throughout their healthcare journeys. As we drive this transformation, we're revolutionizing customer interactions with the healthcare system, leveraging AI, cloud computing, and other disruptive technologies to tackle complex challenges. Serving UnitedHealth Group's digital technology needs, the Consumer Engineering team impacts millions of lives through UnitedHealthcare & Optum.
The Optum Technology Chief Digital Office (CDO) Leadership team is transforming Optum to be an industry-leading Consumer brand. We are on a journey towards delivering a best-in-the-industry consumer experience to our patients and providers by delivering personalized digital solutions that support our consumers throughout their healthcare journeys. This team is transforming to meet the moment - to begin radically altering the way our customers engage with the healthcare system using modern tech to solve some of the most complex problems experienced along the way.
Serving all of UnitedHealth Group's digital technology needs, the CDO team is responsible for driving outcomes across nearly 30 million+ human lives with UnitedHealthcare insurance, a number which puts UHC at the top of the pack as the largest managed care provider in the United States.
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:

• Lead the development of agentic AI systems that power the Optum Assistant experience, including personalized care recommendations, user engagement optimization, conversational intelligence, and other capabilities derived from structured, unstructured, and multimodal data
• Define and drive the AI/ML platform strategy for Optum Assistant, establishing scalable, reusable engineering frameworks and automation that accelerate model development and deployment for thousands of engineers and data scientists across the enterprise
• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies, academic research, and industry trends, and translate these insights into actionable proposals that enhance Optum Assistant's intelligence, performance, and business impact
• Provide technical leadership, coaching, and mentorship to data scientists, ML engineers, research scientists, and platform engineers-ensuring delivery excellence and guiding the team toward best practice tools, architectures, and methodologies
• Partner with cross functional product, engineering, clinical, design, and operations teams to identify and prioritize opportunities where AI can meaningfully improve user interactions, care delivery, and operational efficiency within Optum Assistant
• Collaborate closely with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) organization to ensure that all AI/ML components of Optum Assistant meet enterprise ethical standards, regulatory requirements, safety expectations, and model governance policies
• Produce high quality internal and external technical documentation, system architecture artifacts
• Champion and evangelize the value of AI/ML innovations within Optum Assistant, driving awareness, understanding, and adoption across the 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:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related major
• 10+ years of experience in engineering, preferably with experience working on consumer-facing products
• 5+ years of experience leading technical teams
• Experience building conversational AI solutions using LLMs or traditional NLP (preferably Amazon Lex)
• Practical experience with AI technology stacks and deployment and operations methodologies in public cloud (Amazon Web Services technology stack preferred)
• Proven in-depth knowledge in Generative AI technology and Large Language Models (LLM) with focus in LLM optimization for agentic AI solutions

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven solid communication skills to articulate technical concepts to other engineers and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience automating user journeys conversational infrastructure (experience with multiple NLP and Contact Center solutions)

*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 $134,600 to $230,800 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
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.