AI/ML Engineer, Sr.

About the Company

Optum Tech is part of UnitedHealth Group, a healthcare organization focused on improving health outcomes and making the healthcare system work better for everyone. Its teams use technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced data analytics, and cybersecurity to address complex healthcare challenges.

Optum AI is UnitedHealth Group’s enterprise AI team, bringing together AI/ML scientists and engineers to develop solutions for businesses including UnitedHealthcare, Optum Financial, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The team also develops and supports an enterprise AI/ML platform, with a focus on responsible innovation and practical applications of advanced AI research.

About the Role

Optum AI is seeking an experienced machine learning professional to develop and improve AI models, with a particular focus on large language models (LLMs), deep learning, natural language processing, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). The role involves advancing model capabilities and reliability, developing scalable machine learning solutions, and establishing responsible AI practices across the organization.

You will contribute to the team’s research and innovation agenda, define technical priorities and measures of progress, and collaborate with fellow scientists and engineers to bring new methods into practice. The position offers opportunities to work on advanced AI techniques for healthcare data and help service teams adopt emerging research and scientific best practices.

This is a remote opportunity for candidates in the United States, subject to location-specific office requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement models and methods that improve the capabilities and reliability of large language models.
• Research, design, and implement scalable machine learning models for real-time processing.
• Develop solutions and scientific best practices for responsible AI.
• Contribute to the research and innovation agenda for the Optum AI team.
• Define strategies, priorities, and metrics for technical progress in deep learning, RAG, and LLMs.
• Collaborate with AI/ML scientists and engineers to develop and improve machine learning solutions.
• Apply advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques to address complex business and healthcare challenges.
• Promote the adoption of new research, scientific methods, and best practices among service teams.
• Contribute to the development of responsible AI metrics, methods, and solutions.
• Help advance the team’s technical capabilities through research, experimentation, and collaboration.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related quantitative field.
• At least five years of experience applying machine learning to natural language processing, multimodal real-time processing, or other AI domains.
• At least three years of experience using deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• At least three years of experience developing machine learning applications.
• At least three years of experience developing responsible AI metrics, best practices, or solutions.
• At least three years of machine learning and reinforcement learning research and development experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Machine Learning, with a focus on natural language processing or generative AI.
• Experience with advanced deep learning, applied mathematics, and statistics.
• Experience fine-tuning large language models or improving the performance of pretrained LLMs.
• Strong technical and scientific knowledge of generative AI.

Location and Work Arrangement

This position offers remote work from anywhere in the United States. Employees hired in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C., areas must work in the office at least four days per week. Remote employees must comply with UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Salary and Benefits

The annual salary range is $145,500–$249,500 for full-time employment. Actual compensation depends on factors such as local labor markets, education, work experience, and certifications.

Benefits and incentives include:

• Comprehensive benefits package, subject to eligibility requirements.
• Incentive and recognition programs.
• Equity stock purchase opportunities.
• 401(k) contributions.
• Additional benefits and career development opportunities.

Equal Employment Opportunity

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Em…