Senior Software Engineer

Join Optum

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 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.

You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities

• Contributions to architecture and delivery of ML/GenAI solutions (classification, forecasting, LLM apps) at production scale
• Build robust data/feature pipelines over large clinical/claims datasets; write efficient, well-tested Python (pandas/NumPy) and SQL
• Develop and deploy LLM capabilities: prompt design, fine-tuning, RAG pipelines and evaluation with guardrails
• Work closely with lead engineers to develop the best technical design and approach for new product development
• Collaborates closely with Business Analysts on developing requirements and may assist with estimating
• Instill best practices for software development and documentation, assure designs meet requirements, and deliver high-quality work on tight schedules
• Operational Excellence - build, deploy, monitor, and operation of production services
• Establish LLM Ops best practices: CI/CD, model registry, experiment tracking, monitoring, drift detection, A/B testing, cost/perf optimization
• These roles include, but are not limited to analysis, design, coding, engineering, testing, debugging, standards, methods, tools analysis, documentation, research and development, maintenance, new development, operations and delivery. With every role in the company, each position has a requirement for building quality into every output
• This also includes evaluating new tools, new techniques, strategies; Automation of common tasks; build of common utilities to drive organizational efficiency with a passion around technology and solutions and influence of thought and leadership on future capabilities and opportunities to apply technology in new and innovative ways
• Reviews the work of others
• Develop innovative approaches
• Sought out as expert
• Serves as a leader/ mentor on AI/ML area
• Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions to address complex business challenges with emphasis on responsible use of AI

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent program
• 5+ years of Azure cloud experience or equivalent cloud experience
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Java and Python
• 1+ years of AI experience
• 1+ years of AI, LLMs, embeddings, RAG, fine-tuning, evaluation experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong foundation in machine learning, statistics, optimization, and probability
• Hands‑on experience with:
• Classical ML, deep learning, and Generative AI models
• Model evaluation, validation, and performance tuning
• Proficiency in Python and modern AI libraries
• Experience with RAG frameworks and vector databases
• Solid foundation in statistics and ML (hypothesis testing, experimental design, feature engineering, supervised/unsupervised methods)
• Experience building scalable, cloud‑native AI systems (Azure)
• Strong software engineering practices: GitHub, code reviews, CI/CD

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 $91,700 - $163,700 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.

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.