Senior AI/ML Scientist - Remote

Overview

Job Description

Senior AI/ML Scientist - Remote

Company : UnitedHealth Group

Location: Eden Prairie, MN (remote-friendly). On-site option listed; some offices require in-person presence. This is a full-time position.

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 talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. 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 high-impact opportunities across UnitedHealth Group businesses including UnitedHealthcare, Optum Financial, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. Our charter also includes developing and supporting an enterprise AI/ML development platform.

As a Senior AI/ML Engineer, you will be responsible for the design, implementation, and scaling of AI systems for health applications at Optum. These systems will solve problems focused on improving patient engagement, predicting progression of disease, supporting novel designs of clinical trials using both structured and unstructured (text) data, and optimizing claims processing. You will apply state-of-the-art approaches for MLOps to ensure the performance and reliability of machine learning models serving our customers and build data pipelines that deliver real-time insights. You will have the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere within the U.S. In the Minneapolis or Washington, DC area, in-office requirement is four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to determine applicability of AI to business problems
• Process and transform source data to be used in machine learning pipelines, leveraging distributed computing environments and parallel processing approaches
• Build robust training and evaluation pipelines using Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow, and modern ML tooling
• Follow best practices for software development (tests, packaging, GitHub, code review)
• Communicate clearly with cross-functional teams and stakeholders through written documents, technical talks, and presentations
• Stay up-to-date with latest AI/ML technologies and research
• Publish findings in top-tier AI and ML venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CHIL, etc.) and present internally to Optum AI and business leaders
• Collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI (RUAI) team to ensure solutions comply with company policies and standards
• Develop evaluation protocols, diagnostics, and documentation to support model governance and regulatory requirements

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field
• PhD with experience in AI/ML solutions delivery or Masters with 5 years in AI/ML solutions delivery
• Experience using cloud platforms and services (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.)
• Proficiency in AI/ML engineering development with Python
• Demonstrated experience leading and implementing AI/ML projects from ideation to evaluation, delivery, and monitoring
• Experience with AI cloud services like Azure ML, Databricks, Azure OpenAI, or similar services in GCP / AWS
• Expertise in Large Language Modeling and Transformer Architectures with experience in prompt engineering, evaluation, and LLM optimization
• Strong verbal and written communication skills to lead/mentor project teams and present technical content to multiple audiences, including senior management

Preferred Qualifications

• Working knowledge of software development tools and practices including DevOps and CI/CD tools (Git, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
• Experience working with healthcare data (claims, EHR, clinician notes, etc.) and implementing AI solutions in a healthcare setting
• Experience implementing agent architectures that can plan, call tools/APIs, interact with retrieval systems, and handle multistep clinical workflows
• Publication record in top-tier AI/ML/NLP venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CHIL, etc.)
• 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. The salary for this role will range from $89,900 to $160,600 annually based on full-time employment.