Lead AI/ML Engineer

Requisition Number: 2370195
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.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Research & Development
  • Lead applied research in LLMs, generative AI, and multimodal models
  • Evaluate and experiment with state-of-the-art architectures (e.g., Transformers, Diffusion Models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
  • Publish internal whitepapers and contribute to external conferences where applicable
• Engineering & Implementation
  • Design and implement scalable AIML pipelines using frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, and MLflow
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to deploy models into production using MLOps best practices (CI/CD, model versioning, monitoring)
• Tooling & Infrastructure
  • Evaluate and integrate advanced AIML tools such as GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, and Hugging Face Transformers
  • Work with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) to ensure scalable and secure model deployment
• Architecture & Strategy
  • Architect end-to-end AIML systems including data ingestion, model training, inference, and feedback loops
  • Partner with enterprise architects and product leaders to align AIML capabilities with business goals 3
• Mentorship & Collaboration
  • Mentor junior engineers and researchers
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams including data scientists, software engineers, and business stakeholders
• 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:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience
• Master's or Relavant in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field
• 10+ years of experience in AIML engineering and research
• Experience with experiment tracking tools (e.g., Weights & Biases, MLflow)
• Hands-on experience with MLOps, model deployment, and monitoring
• Expertise in LLMs, generative AI, and deep learning
• Solid programming skills in Python and familiarity with ML libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, Keras)
• Familiarity with AIML governance, ethics, and responsible AI practices

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.