AI/ML Engineer

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, and data 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.

The Chief Digital Office Consumer Engineering team is seeking a AI/ML Engineer to own and advance the intelligence layer of our consumer-facing solutions. In this role, you will design, build, evaluate, and continuously improve AI components, including LLM workflows, RAG pipelines, agentic behaviors, classifiers, summarizers, copilots, and AI evaluation frameworks. Our team's mission is to create innovative digital capabilities that directly impact millions of consumers while ensuring that every AI solution is useful, measurable, safe, transparent, and fit for enterprise execution.

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

Primary Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions, LLM workflows, prompt chains, agents, RAG patterns, model integrations, classification models, and decision-support tools to address complex business challenges
• Develop prompt strategies, tool-calling patterns, grounding techniques, guardrails, and fallback behaviors with an emphasis on responsible AI practices
• Partner with Data Engineering to ensure AI components have access to trusted, appropriate, and governed data sources
• Build and maintain evaluation datasets, scoring rubrics, model-performance tests, and failure-mode analysis tools
• Monitor and continuously improve output quality, hallucination risk, relevance, accuracy, consistency, latency, and operational cost in production environments
• Partner with Quality Assurance, Responsible AI, Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Architecture teams to ensure AI solutions are safe and enterprise-ready
• Document model behavior, known limitations, risk controls, and operational monitoring needs, while supporting production readiness, model observability, and drift monitoring
• Evaluate emerging trends and leverage enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and drive continuous strategic innovation

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

• 3+ years of engineering experience with strong technical proficiency in Python or equivalent programming language
• 1+ years of experience building and deploying AI-enabled applications in enterprise settings, including hands-on experience with LLMs, RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt engineering, and agent frameworks
• 1+ years of experience working with model APIs, orchestration frameworks, data pipelines, and evaluation tooling

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related technical discipline
• Proven ability to design AI workflows that are explainable, testable, governable, and safe
• Solid understanding of model limitations, hallucination risks, bias/fairness concerns, and responsible AI frameworks
• Strong background in Data Science, Machine Learning Engineering, Applied Science, or Full-Stack Engineering with AI specialization
• Practical experience with statistical modeling, data analysis, controlled testing, model evaluation frameworks, and production AI monitoring tools
• Proven experience scaling LLM applications and data science solutions within large enterprise environments
• All Telecommuters 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. 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 $98,500 - $176,000 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.

_Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

__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.

__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.

_#RPO #GREEN