Senior AI/ML Software Engineer

As a Senior AI/ML Software Engineer, you will be responsible for the design and implementation of cutting-edge AI/ML systems for real-world healthcare challenges at Optum; including problems around improving patient engagement through smart nudging, predicting onset and progression of disease, Large Language Model solutions for summarizing large scale patient information, and optimizing clinical trials using both structured and unstructured (text) data. As a senior engineer in charge of AI systems, you will apply state-of-the-art approaches for MLOps to ensure the performance, scalability and reliability of machine learning models serving our customers and build data pipelines that deliver real-time insights.

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

Own the inference and delivery of machine learning insights to multiple customers

Manage, monitor, and scale machine learning systems, delivering insights to multiple customers

Partner with cross-functional engineering teams to implement scalable, flexible pipelines that bring AI innovations into real-world products

Work with large-scale data and distributed computing frameworks to process and analyze high-volume healthcare datasets efficiently

Drive pipeline efficiency and reliability through profiling, refactoring and advanced engineering

Develop new data pipelines to improve ML model usage

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor of Science in computer science or related quantitative field

5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 3+ years building and operating production ML systems

Expert-level Python experience, including writing production-grade, testable, and maintainable code

Hands-on experience building and deploying APIs using FastAPI (or similar Python web frameworks) in a production environment

Solid experience deploying, managing, and scaling services in Kubernetes, including:

Containerization (Docker)

Helm or equivalent deployment tooling

Resource tuning, autoscaling, and failure recovery

Proven experience with MLOps practices, including:

Model deployment and versioning

Monitoring model performance, drift, and system health

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with AzureML, DataBricks, and Azure Kubernetes

Experience with distributed computing approaches

Expertise in ML Ops, for example, model monitoring, drift detection, and event-based model retraining

Proven solid technical communication skills

Proven ability and drive to learn independently

Proven problem-solving and analytical thinking

Proven ability to explain technical decisions to stakeholders

*All employees working remotely 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 $91,700 to $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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.