Senior AI/ML Applied Scientist - | Prairie, |

Join Optum AI

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.

Optum AI is UnitedHealth Group's enterprise AI team. We are AI/ML scientists and engineers with deep expertise in AI/ML engineering for health care. We develop AI/ML solutions for the highest impact opportunities across UnitedHealth Group businesses including UnitedHealthcare, Optum Financial, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. In addition to transforming the health care journey through responsible AI/ML innovation, our charter also includes developing and supporting an enterprise AI/ML development platform.

Optum AI team members:

• Have impact at scale: We have the data and resources to make an impact at scale. When our solutions are deployed, they have the potential to make health care system work better for everyone
• Do ground-breaking work: Many of our current projects involve cutting edge ML, NLP and LLM techniques. Generative AI methods for working with structured and unstructured health care data are continuously being developed and improved. We are working in one of the most important frontiers of AI/ML research and development
• Partner with world-class experts on innovative solutions: Our team members are developing novel AI/ML solutions to business challenges. In some cases, this includes the opportunity to file patents and publish papers about the methods we develop. We also collaborate with AI/ML researchers at some of the world's top universities

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:

• Apply advanced statistical, predictive modeling, and Agentic AI to optimize healthcare and digital experiences
• Collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) team to ensure that the delivered solutions are compliant with company policies and standards
• Research innovative approaches for developing and evaluating Agentic AI solutions, and apply these findings to the solutions you are creating
• Develop code and model documentation, patents and publications in scientific conferences and journals
• Collaborate with engineering teams to develop robust data pipelines of MLOps procedures for new solutions
• Stay up to date with latest technologies and literature

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:

• PhD in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field
• 3+ years of AI/ML experience (LLM, NLP)
• Experience with LLM frameworks and/or NLP approaches such as text embedding and text classification
• Proficiency in AI/ML engineering development with Python
• Expertise in Large Language Modeling and Transformer Architectures with experience in prompt engineering, evaluation, and LLM optimization

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with AI Cloud services like Azure ML, Databricks, Azure OpenAI, or similar services in GCP / AWS
• Experience with Snowflake and other relational databases
• Proven solid publication record in top tier AI/ML/NLP venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CHIL, etc.)
• Proven solid technical communication skills

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). The salary for this role will range from $91,700 to $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.