Senior AI/ML Applied Scientist

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 inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

OptumAI is looking for a Senior Machine Applied Scientists with deep subject matter expertise in text processing, NLU, SLU (Natural language understanding and Spoken Language Understanding) and Computer Vision who will be part of a team leading the technical development and inventions that allow Optum machine learning products drive positive impact in the healthcare business.

Your expertise will bring business and industry context to science and technology decisions. As part of the OptumAI AI/ML applied science group, you set the standard for scientific excellence and make decisions that affect the way we build and integrate algorithms. Your code, designs and documents are exemplary and are used as references across the organization.

A successful candidate is a hands-on AI/ML expert that will tackle intrinsically hard problems, acquiring expertise as needed. The candidate will help decompose complex problems into straightforward solutions. Should bring their design ideas and engage in constructive design discussions involving models, algorithms catering to business problems.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Help design and develop the next generation of NLP, ML & AI products, and services for healthcare
• Develop machine learning and deep learning models and systems in domains including, but not limited to: NLP, NLU, NLG and multidimensional time series forecasting among others
• Exposure in RAG, LangChain, VectorDBs
• Ability to Quantize, Optimize GenAI models
• Manage NLP & ML models lifecycle for a suite of products
• Run large complex proof-of-concepts for the healthcare business
• Manage prioritization and technology work for building NLP, ML & AI solutions
• Lead the full end-to-end machine learning development process including data ingestion and preparation, feature engineering, analysis and modeling, model deployment, performance tracking and documentation
• Establish best practices for end-to-end deep learning and machine learning development cycle to ensure rigor in process and quality in outcome
• Work with a great deal of autonomy to find solutions to complex problems
• Scientist Responsibilities:
  • Collaborate with research, engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI advancements into production-ready capabilities. Uphold ethical AI principles by embedding fairness, transparency, and accountability throughout the model development lifecycle
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Master's in computer science with 4+ years of industry experience or PhD with 2+years of industry experience in data science, machine learning or a related field
• 4+ years of experience with Deep Learning Frameworks and Distributed training
• 3+ years of experience with Machine Learning and Deep Learning modeling
• 2+ years of experience applying computational algorithms and statistical methods to both structured and unstructured data
• 1+ years of experience in GenAI models optimization
• 1+ years of experience in Agentic AI
• Statistics, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, or another quantitative field
• Proven excellent communication, writing and presentation skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience to mentor and train scientists on complex technical issues
• Experience in the health care industry
• Significant experience in deploying scalable solutions to complex problems, from defining the problem, implementing the solution, and launching the new product successfully

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.