Senior Manager AI/ML Engineering

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

AI/ML Solutions Delivery

• Lead end-to-end implementation of AI/ML and Generative AI initiatives
• Collaborate with business and product stakeholders to translate opportunities into scalable technical solutions
• Guide engineering teams in selecting appropriate frameworks, technologies, and implementation approaches
• Ensure solutions meet functional, scalability, privacy, compliance, and performance expectations
• Drive adoption of reusable assets, accelerators, and engineering best practices

Cloud Modernization

• Advance cloud adoption strategies for AI/ML workloads using modern platform services and engineering practices
• Enable scalable deployment models through automation, infrastructure orchestration, and release management
• Improve engineering efficiency through standardized environments, platform tooling, and developer experience enhancements
• Optimize resource utilization and operational spend through effective platform governance

Responsible AI Technologies

• Establish practices for trustworthy AI including model validation, transparency, monitoring, and risk mitigation.
• Promote practical adoption of GenAI capabilities that deliver measurable business outcomes
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend solutions aligned with organizational priorities
• Encourage responsible experimentation while balancing innovation, risk, and value realization
• Oversee execution of AI/ML roadmaps, ensuring commitments are delivered with quality and predictability
• Manage dependencies, risks, priorities, and resource allocation across multiple initiatives
• Provide leadership with visibility into delivery progress, operational metrics, and business impact

Engineering Team Leadership

• Build high-performing AI/ML engineering teams through mentorship, skill development, and career coaching
• Create a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Manage workforce planning, talent acquisition, employee engagement, and technical capability growth
• Partner with geographically distributed teams to ensure smooth execution and knowledge sharing

Platform Stability & Operational Excellence

• Champion operational health of AI/ML products and platforms through proactive monitoring and performance optimization
• Establish measurable service targets and continuously improve platform responsiveness and dependability
• Drive operational maturity through automation, runbook adoption, and preventative maintenance practices
• Coordinate recovery efforts during service disruptions and ensure lessons learned translate into sustainable improvements
• Promote scalable architecture patterns that support business continuity and resiliency objectives

Leadership Impact & Organizational Scope

• Influence technology direction and operational excellence across a business function, product area, or strategic portfolio
• Partner with business, product, architecture, and engineering stakeholders to achieve enterprise priorities and measurable business results
• Demonstrate adherence to organizational policies, compliance requirements, security standards, and evolving business practices while maintaining a culture of accountability and integrity
• Comply with all applicable Company policies, procedures, and business directives, changes including those relating to work location, team assignments, work schedules, and flexible work arrangements

Required Qualifications

• Degree qualification (BA, BS) in a relevant field (e.g., IT, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics) or equivalent experience
• Proven solid experience in software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning engineering, data engineering, or a closely related technical role
• Demonstrated experience building solutions with large language models, generative AI, agentic AI patterns, or AI-powered automation
• Demonstrated experience with prompt engineering, structured outputs, function calling or tool use, workflow orchestration, and solution evaluation
• Demonstrated experience integrating applications with APIs, databases, cloud services, and enterprise platforms
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Python and experience developing production-quality code, APIs, services, or reusable technical components
• Demonstrated understanding of retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases, semantic search, or enterprise knowledge retrieval patterns
• Demonstrated understanding of software engineering practices including version control, automated testing, CI/CD, code review, documentation, and release management
• Demonstrated understanding of responsible AI, data privacy, security, governance, monitoring, and risk management considerations for AI-enabled systems
• Demonstrated familiarity with cloud-based application development and deployment environments
• Demonstrated familiarity with Agile/Scrum or similar delivery methodologies
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues across application logic, data sources, model behaviour, integrations, and user workflows
• Demonstrated solid written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to business and technology stakeholders
• Demonstrated solid analytical thinking and problem solving capability

Preferred Qualifications

Master's or advanced degree in a relevant field

Proven experience designing, deploying, and supporting production AI agents, copilots, or intelligent automation solutions in an enterprise environment

Demonstrated experience with agentic AI frameworks or orchestration tools such as Microsoft Agent Framework, Semantic Kernel, LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI, or similar technologies

Demonstrated experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Power Platform, or equivalent cloud AI platforms

Proven experience applying AI evaluation, observability, telemetry, guardrails, model monitoring, and continuous improvement practices

Demonstrated experience with containerization, DevOps tooling, Infrastructure as Code, API management, and secure software delivery practices

Proven experience in healthcare, pharmacy, insurance, financial services, or similar regulated environments

Proven experience working in large or complex organizational environments

Proven experience working in customer facing, support oriented, or cross-functional engineering teams

Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a changing environment and learn emerging technologies quickly

Demonstrated solid organizational and prioritization skills

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.